Serena's past
by bchendry
Summary: Reuploading and finishing a story i had on here a while back where you couldnt read it because of all the weird space issues. Story most like the 90s version with some changes here and there, focusing on things past and DarienXSerena love. hope you enjoy! rated t for make out sesh


Switched

(A sailor moon story with some things swapped) I rewatched the series after this and realized how many mistakes I made but it was too late to change them

Serena's perspective

The morning started as any other would, I dragged myself out of bed and began to brush my absurdly long hair. Looking at myself in the mirror was like looking at someone else. I looked and dressed how I felt on the inside, but there was always something missing.

Pulling my long, black hair up, I separated it into two parts, and rolled those parts into buns. After that I put on my normal makeup, the everyday black eyeshadow, eyeliner, eyebrow pencil, and lipstick. After changing into a short black skirt with knee-high combat boots and a loose top, I finished the ensemble with a choker that had a crescent moon on it.

A soft knock fell upon the door and I opened it slowly. It was my roommate, Amy.

"Oh hello Serena, you were pretty quiet this morning so I just wanted to check to make sure you were going to be awake in time for class."

I nodded, "I forgot to charge my speaker." Normally I would play music at the loudest volume my dorm would allow, but the kind of speaker I had (a very small one shaped like a pill) always had to be charged in order to play.

Amy nodded and walked away, leaving me alone with my thoughts again. She was nice, a sweet girl with huge ambitions but also a huge lack of self-confidence. Her hair was a startling blue, matching her eyes and her outfit perfectly. We didn't have any classes together since she was in all the advanced classes, and we weren't exactly friends per-say either. We were put together as roommates about 8 months ago, I had just turned 18, just gotten out of the foster system, and together we started our freshman year of college. We get along okay; I just would say we're friends is all. Not that I really have any friends, but I'm okay with that, I'm not here to make friends, I'm just here to get an education so that I can get a job to support myself…wherever life may take me.

Anyways…I grabbed my headphones and immediately began my favorite walking-to-class song: The Bird and the Worm by The Used. I don't know exactly why that's my signature song, it just always has been, it gets me ready for the day full of classwork. On this particular day, I was getting lost in my thoughts and didn't notice a man that was doing the same headed my way. We collided and I found myself on my ass on the concrete. My skirt rode up my hips and I was thankful I had remembered to wear my hot pants underneath.

"Oh my gosh I am so sorry! Are you okay?" the man asked.

I stood up with no help from the man and growled, "You should watch where you're going."

"You're right, I'm sorry!"

I looked at the man and almost gaped. He wasn't exactly my cup of tea style wise- blonde hair, sparkling smile, the Rolex type-but any girl in any clique could've swooned at his ocean-blue eyes. Composing myself and pretending I didn't just gawk at the prep before me, I furrowed my brow and pursed my lips.

"I suppose I'll forgive you, so long as you didn't use tripping me as an opportunity to look up my skirt."

He waved his hands like a white flag, "I would never!"

"If you'll excuse me-" I said, gesturing with my hands. The man looked down and grabbed my hand, pointing at my scraped palm that was beginning to bleed.

"Oh no, please, let me help you with that."

I flinched and pulled away, "I'm just fine, thank you; I don't need a man to help me clean a wound-especially one so minor."

"Of course, I just feel bad. As least let me treat you to a cup of coffee to properly apologize."

Waving my hand I considered it, "you know I would say it's not necessary, but I don't usually turn down free stuff. Although I don't do coffee, how 'bout you buy me a drink instead?"

He raised an eyebrow, "are you…old enough?"

I shrugged, "maybe I am, maybe I'm not. Does it matter? This is college were talking about, not a single person here follows the drinking rule."

"Well maybe, it's just that I'm kind of a clumsy drinker."

I actually cracked a smile, "no! I wouldn't have pegged the man that just ran into me to be a clumsy drinker!"

"Ha-ha, you gunna hold that over me forever?"

"Are you sayin there's a chance?" _am I actually flirting with this guy?_

"Hm, maybe, why don't I pick you up at 8 and we could find out?" _and is he flirting back?_

I gulped and looked around; maybe it was some kind of prank. Why would Mr. Ken Doll be flirting with me? I saw no one, but still I was skeptical.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Maybe I should get your name before you ask me out. If that is what you're doing."

"Oh forgive me-" he gasped, holding his hand out. I shook my head and gave him a fist-bump instead of a handshake. "The name's Darien."

"Serena."

I gave him my dorm information, still watching my back, and told him I was going to be late for class.

"Well then, Serena," he took my bleeding hand and kissed it just above the scrape, it took me a moment to pull back that time, "I will see you tonight."

"Uh…yeah," normally I would have some snarky come-back…anything, but for some reason this Darien person just took my breath away and I had nothing.

I stomped my boot on the ground and stormed off. _What the heck just happened?_ I couldn't allow myself to get emotionally invested in someone that was one- waayyy out of my 'clique'- and two-no…there was no two…he's perfect. _Seriously…what?_

Focusing on my classes that day was difficult. There was so much math and science and it was stressing me out, I found myself practically daydreaming about the man. Once class was dismissed it took everything I had in me not just run straight back to my dorm, but I resisted, and instead just put my headphones in and carried about casually. On my way back to my dorm, I spotted a little black cat sniffing around in the bushes. Curiously I made my way over to her and she eyes me suspiciously. I noted that she had a crescent moon shaped bald spot on her forehead and thought she'd be a perfect fit for me.

"Hey there little one," I coaxed.

She stepped back, unsure whether she could trust me. Getting down to her level, I crouched and held out my hand to her. She sniffed it and then sneezed. Before she could escape I picked her up and carried her to my dorm room. She meowed relentlessly but only jumped out of my arms after it was already too late.

"It's okay, I'll take good care of you, I promise. We can be best friends if you want. Now the only thing we need is a name for you." I patted the little one on the head then scratched her chin and she began to purr. For the next couple hours she never took her eyes off of me. I knew we weren't supposed to have cats in the dorm but I didn't really care, I just wanted her to be safe. Amy got home then, even though she had two more classes than I did on any given day, she would still immediately get home and start on homework in the 'living room' area of our dorm. The cat jumped back, startled.

"It's okay, it's just my roommate. You'll like her enough." I shrugged and she jumped into my arms.

I walked out of my room and met Amy's gaze.

"Oh my," she exclaimed. "How cute you are."

Amy let the cat sniff her hand and she immediately started purring.

"Who's this?" she asked.

"I just found her roaming around outside, thought we could keep her."

"But that's against the rules."

I nudged her, "I won't tell if you don't."

"Well…"

"She needs a home."

"She does seem…well behaved."

"She is, I promise, we'll just need to get her a scratching post…and a few other things."

Amy nodded, "if you can provide, then I guess you can keep her here."

"Aw thanks Ames. So since you're such a nice roommate, would you mind keeping an eye on her? I'm going out tonight."

Amy had almost no response; I could tell she was trying to keep from rolling her eyes.

"Please? It's kind of a weird situation, but I kind of got asked out."

"Like a date?"

"Only one way to find out."

"Well I suppose, just for tonight."

I thanked her again, maybe she wasn't as much of a goody-two-shoes as I had thought, and then retreated to my room to get ready. The little one watched curiously as I decided what to wear. I wanted to look…well nice I guess…but not like I was trying too hard. I may be dark but I'm no slut, I still have my dignity. So I settled for a little black dress, something that hugged my curves nicely but still left some to the imagination. I did my hair as usual, only I left some of it hanging down from the buns, king of like a mix of pigtails and double buns. I left my makeup and accessories alone, but I swapped out my combat boots for black wedges.

As soon as I came out of my room I heard a knock at the door.

"Oh that must be him," I told Amy.

I opened the door to find Mr. Rolex in a white suit with a black button-up and a black tie.

"Serena! You look…nice," he said with a grin.

I couldn't hold one back myself, "as do you."

The cat rubbed up against my leg and meowed. I picked her up and scratched her head before handing her to Amy, "be good for Amy," I told her.

Darien raised his hand to say something, but I glared at him and he changed his mind. Amy waved goodbye and we were off. Neither of us had cars, so we took the bus to downtown and walked a few blocks to a club that surprisingly had a very short line to get in. It seemed awkward at first, Darien and I weren't really sure how to talk to each other, but after I made a few dark jokes and he genuinely laughed at them I realized we might actually have more in common than previously thought.

"Darien I must say, you aren't exactly what I was expecting," I said as we approached the front of the bouncer line.

"And what were you expecting?"

I screwed my lips to the side, "I'm not sure, a jock I suppose, the kind that would only take a cheerleader out for drinks."

"You kidding? I'm all for girls that are a little ditzy, but only if they're nice too."

"I'm neither nice nor ditzy."

"Yet somehow you never punched me for running into you or offering to take you out before even knowing your name."

I stammered, no rebuttal, "I…just wanted free stuff."

He nodded, "sure you did. I know I'm good looking, its okay you can admit it."

We got out our IDs (mine a very real-looking fake) and the bouncer shrugged and pointed his thumb at the door. Darien opened said door for me and I went inside. I was in awe of the place immediately; everything was black light and neon lights amounts a black canvas.

"Okay fine," I admitted, finding a spot to sit at the bar, "you're a little gorgeous, but you'd look better with your hair in your face and some Tripps."

"Tripps?"

"They're these pants that-oh look that girl has a pair on-" I turned and saw a woman with waist length black hair and eyes dark enough to match dancing with some friends near the bar. She had on bright red skinny Tripps with chains wrapped around her hips. She wore converse and a see-through black top otherwise.

"Those are the skinny versions, but they also have ones that are a lot more flared,"

"Ah, well I definitely don't think I could pull off skinny jeans."

I shrugged, "who knows maybe they'd make your butt look good."

He laughed in a way that showed off his pearly white teeth as the bartender made his way over to us. We both ordered very strong drinks.

"Trying not to look wimpy in front of me?" I asked.

"Are you saying you can drink more than me?"

"I'm saying you're afraid that I can drink you under the table, and you would be right in that assumption."

"Oh am I? Excuse me sir, could we get a couple shots of vodka please?" he asked.

I raised an eyebrow, "that's more like it."

After a couple shots we had both loosened up enough that we were joking around together and flirting, and when Darien suggested a dance, I didn't hesitate, I took his hand and followed him out to the floor. There were two main big genres of music that I liked, the second one being EDM, and the DJ at the club was playing a Bassnectar song, that, plus the flashing lights and buzz from the alcohol had me goin pretty hard. I wasn't twerking or anything like that, just actually dancing and having a great time. There might've been a bit of grinding on my part for a short period, but Darien hadn't seemed to mind. I guessed there was more to him than meets the eye. At some point during the night I went to the restroom and the girl with red pants was in there, so I told her that I liked them; she thanked me and reciprocated the compliment by telling me my dress was really pretty.

"I'm Rei," she said, bobbing her head.

"Serena."

"I think I've seen you around, do we go to the same school?"

I asked her what school she went to and we had a brief conversation about how we should hang out sometime. It really wasn't like me to make friends so easily, first with Darien, and then with Rei. It had to be the alcohol, but I won't complain; it's always good to have people to back you up if you ever get into a pickle.

Rei came with me back to Darien and the three of us got back to dancing. Once we grew tired of that Darien and I decided to take a walk in the small park that was pretty close to the club, Darien took my hand in his and I didn't budge.

As we walked I slowly came back down to earth and it was nice to get some fresh air, however I still had my drunk courage, "Darien, I like you, so I'd like to be honest with you."

"Honesty is the best policy, what's up?"

"You should know my ID is fake."

He gasped half-sarcastically, "you're not 21? How old are you?"

I paused, knowing I needed to be honest if our friendship was going to go anywhere, "a strong 18."

"18? Wow so you must be…"

"A freshman? Yeah."

"Wow…I graduate this semester…"

"I'm sorry I lied it's not that I wanted to, it's just that I really needed a drink, I promise I won't lie again."

"Hm…well I guess since I did technically just meet you today that I could let it slide this once."

"Aw thanks bro you're the best." I fist-bumped him and he laughed.

"Well I'm glad you told me the truth…and I'm glad you didn't say you were like 17 or something."

I stopped and looked up at him, he was at least two heads taller than me so it had been a bit awkward at first, "oh really? And whys that?"

"Because…I think I like you, okay?"

"You know Darien, another truth about me? I don't like to play games. I get right to the point."

"Okay, so what is your point?"

I got up on my toes and wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling him in for a kiss. Darien kissed me back and I was suddenly elevated off the ground. Darien spun me around and I could tell he was smiling behind our kiss. Once we broke away from the kiss, he set me down and smiled at me.

I was just about to say something when I saw a shadow move out of the corner of my eye. Darien followed my gaze and we saw a small black cat jump out of nowhere. She ran up to me and immediately jumped into my arms, meowing to where she almost sounded scared.

"Is that the same cat that was in your dorm?"

I looked down at the little fur ball and sure enough, she had the same bald spot on her forehead, "yeah…but how did she get here? Amy was supposed to be watching her."

"She seems scared."

"Yeah, little one, what's got you spooked?"

She jumped from my arms and began to pace in front of us. She looked around as if to see if the coast was clear and then…began to speak.

"Serena. There's really no time to explain but I'm going to have to make time. My name is Luna, and long story short, your friend Rei needs your help."

I gritted my teeth and looked back at Darien, whose eyes were wide, "you saw that right?"

He nodded, speechless.

"Please tell me you're a hallucination caused by drinking way too much."

"Uh Serena, you get hallucinations from being high, not drunk."

"You don't know that! Maybe they spiked our dinks!"

"Serena I can assure you I am not a hallucination. But…well here," Luna pounced into the air and did a backflip, and all of a sudden there was a weird looking compact in front of me.

"What is this?" I opened it, the outside of the compact was black with gold accents, a swirl design with a crescent moon in the middle, and inside was a very large, round crystal.

"Hold this up and say Moon Prism Power Makeup!"

"But why?"

"Because I believe you are a Sailor Scout and that means that you will fight for your loved ones."

I looked over at Darien and he shrugged, "if we are hallucinating, we might as well go along with it.

I nodded and did as Luna asked, and suddenly my clothes were changing from a little black dress to a little sailor suit. It was a black top with an electric blue bow in the center of the chest, a very form-fitting outfit I might add, with a blue layered skirt to match and black knee high riding boots.

"Woah." I stammered. I turned around and Darien was on his knees, clenching his teeth and holding his head in his hands.

"Darien, are you okay?"

He pushed out with his hand, "its okay, I'm fine; you go help your friend. I'll catch up."

"Okay I guess."

Luna meowed and pushed me towards the club. We ran and rounded the corner quickly, where people were running screaming from the building. I ran inside to find Rei and when I did I screamed. She had been knocked unconscious by…some sort of monster. I ran over to her, she was bleeding pretty badly from a cut on her head, "Luna what is that thing?"

The room had been cleared by then and a grey monster with spikes for hands started coming towards me.

"Serena, you are Sailor Moon now! You can fight that monster!"

"I can?"

"Yes! Use your tiara, throw it and say 'Moon Tiara Magic!' and you'll see."

I reached up to my forehead, I hadn't even noticed, but she was right, there was a tiara there, a gold one with a blue jewel in the middle. Suddenly I felt like I knew what I was doing, and I tossed the tiara chanting "Moon Tiara Magic", and the tiara turned into a boomerang that sliced the monsters arms off.

"Whoa."

"Sailor Moon!" a deep voice yelled. I turned around and a cloaked man stood before me. He was wearing a tuxedo and his face was covered by a white mask.

"Who are you?" I asked, admiring the hunk.

"My name is Tuxedo Mask!" he walked over to me, his cape swaying back and forth. Those eyes, there was something…so familiar about them.

I heard a growl from behind me and just as I was about to spin around, Tuxedo Mask had grabbed me and put me behind him. He threw his arm out and a sharp red rose stabbed the monster right in the chest and it screamed.

"Nooo!" it garbled.

Tuxedo Mask turned and lowered his hat, "can you finish him off?"

I nodded, finally getting it. Luna did her little backflip again but this time a black wand with a golden crescent moon on the top appeared. It matched the compact perfectly. I didn't need Luna's help to figure out how to use it this time.

"Moon Healing Activation!" I shouted and spun the wand around then held it out towards the monster. Suddenly the monster began to scream and then fade away, and quickly a silence fell upon the room.

"Great job Sailor Moon!" Tuxedo Mask exclaimed.

"Uh…thanks I guess. Where did you come from?"

The man put his gloved finger to my lips, and then swung his cape around and left. I was just left to gape momentarily before Rei woke up.

"Rei are you okay?"

"Ah yeah, what happened?"

"I don't think you'd believe me if I told you," I smiled and helped her stand up, "here let's get you cleaned up."

I took her into the bathroom and made sure her bleeding had stopped, cleaned her up, and then helped her out of the bar. We began to look for Darien, but after a while we couldn't find him, and I realized I had never gotten his cell phone number, so we took the bus back to school and told Rei to crash on our couch so I could keep an eye on her. She griped for a bit but eventually caved. When we arrived at my dorm I opened the door to find the place empty. I called Amy to see if she was okay and she said she had some bad news. Intuition told me she meant Luna and I told her that Luna was fine and that I would explain when she got home, so twenty minutes later I was telling her about how Luna found me at the club.

"I'm so sorry Serena, one second she was right here and the next she was gone! I don't know what happened. How did she find you all the way downtown?"

I looked down at my little talking cat and she meowed, "who knows? I guess she must really like me."

"So Luna is her name then?"

"Yeah…I think it's very fitting."

"It is," Amy nodded.

After telling Amy about our night and leaving certain parts out, I could tell we were all getting very tired, so I led Rei into my room so she could borrow some PJs.

"Ah, you got anything in red?" she asked.

"Just black…and a little bit of blue."

She shrugged, "fine I suppose I'll make this work."

Amy had gone to bed by then, so Rei and I lay out on the couch and watched TV until we eventually passed out from exhaustion.

Ch. 2

A few weeks after the club incident I finally had my second encounter with a monster. The same man-Tuxedo Mask-had appeared again to help me out. I did tell him that I didn't need his help, but I also had to admit that it was nice having a partner in…not crime. Once I said my Moon Healing Activation mantra, and the monster was gone, so was the masked man. I hadn't even gotten to ask him where he came from or how he knew to come help me, but I guessed that maybe I'd get the chance to some other time. Another strange thing about that second encounter was that as it turns out, Rei is actually a Sailor Scout too! She was with me when the attack happened and…well I guess Luna figured it out! Rei became Sailor Mars right before my eyes. After that we started hanging out a lot more often.

It was the Saturday before finals, and the Saturday before seniors graduated, and I was outside in the courtyard reading Edgar Allen Poe and listening to my usual music. I hadn't seen Darien since the night at the club, and I knew it was probably just 'cause we had never exchanged phone numbers, but a sad part of me wondered if he didn't want to find me. Maybe I freaked him out by being so forward…or too young for him…or a million other reasons.

Luna was sitting next to me in the grass with her head in my lap, we were enjoying the warm sun before it went away for the night, and there weren't many people out, so I felt comfortable enough to talk to her like I would any human. Over the past couple weeks we had become very close. She was slightly over protective and I hounded her for it but we still became as close as sisters. We had our differences but the love would always remain.

Suddenly she sat upright and chirped.

"What's up Luna?" I asked. I followed her gaze and saw the man she was gawking at. It was Darien.

When he noticed me he smiled and jogged over. "Serena!"

I stood up to meet him and he picked me up and spun me around like he had right before I last saw him.

"Darien! I was beginning to think I would never see you again." He put me down and I smoothed out my clothes.

"Sorry, I hadn't realized until it was too late that I never actually got your number."

"It's okay, I didn't ever get yours either so we're both to blame."

"Well I'm glad you're not mad at me."

"I'm just kinda wondering what happened to you that night?"

"Oh," he sighed and stretched, putting his hand behind his neck, "well…actually, I blacked out right after you left…and next think I knew I was back in my dorm, asleep. Part of me still wonders if it was all a dream."

"Well tell me what you remember and I'll tell you what really happened."

"I remember getting drunk, and then going out to the park. I remember you kissing me and…really enjoying it…and then Luna, Luna you talked!"

Luna meowed at me and I knew what she meant.

"And then your clothes! Yeah what happened?"

"Uh yeah…you actually um…passed out right after I kissed you, and um…I kinda freaked out so I called an ambulance, I don't really know much after that because I'm not family so the EMTs wouldn't let me come with you…I'm sorry."

Luna meowed again and I took that as a 'good job' gesture. I sighed. I was doing exactly what I told Darien I wouldn't do right before that all went down. But I guessed it was for the better, and hoped that if one day he found out the truth, that he would forgive me.

"Well thanks…for helping me. I'm glad I found you."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah, I was hoping I'd get to run into you again before I graduated, we're going to a frat party tonight and I was hoping you'd like to come."

I raised an eyebrow, "you go to frat parties?"

"Uh yeah, they're throwing a grad party."

"And you want me to come?"

"Yeah, why not?"

"Ah I don't know; I'm not about that crowd."

"Come on, we can just pretend we're at the club again."

"Aren't frat parties usually like just a bunch of football players and cheerleaders mackin and destroying everything?"

"Not always."

"I don't know."

"There will be booze."

I rolled my eyes, "no shit?"

He laughed and took my hand.

"I'd like…for you to come as my date…if you want."

"Really? You want to date me?"

"Why wouldn't I?"

"Well I mean we don't exactly fit together."

"Oh that's it, I'm too tall for you?" he teased.

I playfully punched him in the arm, "I meant you are a popular, and I am not."

"And you care?"

"Well no…I don't know."

"You know Serena, I think you have a lot more to offer than you think you do. You're smart, funny, beautiful, and…a lot nicer than I would've expected."

"What do you mean?"

"You thought I was a jock when you first saw me, you thought I would be crass and judgmental because I have a bit of money and I hang with a certain crowd, but you've learned that I'm not those things. I'll be honest, for a split second, when I ran into you, I was worried that you were the kind of girl that would just immediately kick me in the nuts and storm off, but you didn't."

I looked up at him and he handed me a blood-red rose. I flushed and in only a split second I thought I saw a flash of something cross his face. Shaking off the thought I graciously accepted the rose.

"I saw it this morning and it made me think of you for some reason, is it your favorite?"

"Yeah actually."

I got up on my toes and kissed him on the cheek.

"So does this mean I can have your number?"

I laughed, "Definitely. And I'll go with you to that party tonight, under one condition."

"What's that?"

"Let me bring Rei too?"

"Okay sure, why not?"

"Cool, what time is it?"

"I was actually headed to it now."

"Fuck, okay, let me call Rei. I need to change though, will you come with me?"

Darien nodded and followed me back to my dorm. I called Rei on the way there and told her what had happened. My new fighting partner and I had actually kept in touch after the night at the club, and had become pretty good friends in the short couple of weeks we'd known each other. We had a lot in common, but we weren't really surprised that we hadn't really seen much of each other around school. Our University is huge and if someone wasn't in your class, you didn't know them. Rei said she would meet us at the party and I led Darien into my dorm.

Amy was away leading some weekend study group so it was just Darien and I. He began to fidget, I noticed, like he was nervous to be alone with me. I wondered whether that was because he thought I was scary, or because he liked me. I hoped the latter.

Darien was a gentleman and waited in the living room while I changed, even though I never said he had to, so I came out wearing a black crop top, black shorts, fishnet tights, and my signature choker. My hair and makeup were in their usual styles but he still seemed in awe when I walked into the living room.

"You like what you see?" I asked.

"Maybe I do, maybe I don't," he teased.

He tried to give me a quick peck on the lips but I reached around him and deepened the kiss. Slowly he got more comfortable and he wrapped his arms around my bare waist.

"Come on, we'll be late," he said, breaking away from the kiss and breathing heavily.

"Aw you're no fun."

"Maybe some other time."

"Ah so you're a keep it professional on the first date kind of guy?"

"I don't know if those are the exact words I would use but yeah."

"That's okay, I like a little mystery," I winked and he smiled, taking my hand and leading me out.

The party was almost exactly as I had pictured it, football players throwing things around, cheerleaders all in uniform and making sure everyone knew it, and the rest just dancing and getting wasted. The frat house was nice, something I wished I could've grown up living in, it was very modern, everything was white and it had a very large staircase in the middle of the foyer. Drinks were being served by the frat boys in training and as soon as Darien and I walked in we were handed red solos.

"Not always, huh?" I teased.

Darien shrugged and tilted his cup towards mine. I tapped my cup to his then took a swig. It was bitter and dry and hard to swallow but I knew that I would need to at least be tipsy to handle a crowd like frat boys. Darien put his hand on the small of my back and led me through the house, introducing me to all his friends. I was surprised, to be honest, that he wanted to show me off when we were still so new, and when I, to his group, am definitely out of his league. However, it makes me happy at the same time. Luna was wrapped around my neck the whole time, keeping an eye out for predators, and also making sure I didn't get too drunk that if a monster showed up I wouldn't be able to fight them.

Rei caught up with us eventually, wearing a tight red dress and skinny red heals to match. Her dress was very short and revealed some interesting tattoos on her legs, ones that aside from then, I had only seen while in combat with her that one time. As my new partner in fighting crime, Rei was awesome. Since we had such similar personalities, it was easy to just gang up on a monster and take him or her down quickly. Rei always liked things her way, so she was always arguing with me, but otherwise she was supportive, straight forward, brave, confident, and strong.

"How's it goin' Meatball Head?" She asked. Her snarky trait had created that nickname for me, after she looked at my hair and decided it reminded her of meatballs.

"Meatball head, that's a perfect name for her!" Darien laughed. I glared at him and he swallowed loudly.

"My name is NOT Meatball Head!"

"No but it is your nickname." Rei exclaimed.

"Watch it," I warned, "or I'll take this boot and shove it up your-"

"Woah girls come on let's just enjoy the party eh?" Darien interrupted.

I sighed, "Maybe. Oh what I wouldn't give to see Amy in this kind of atmosphere. If I'm unsettled, just imagine how awful she would feel."

"I'm sure shed be okay, she seems smart." Rei examined.

"Intelligence has nothing to do with it. I'm talking like anxiety."

"Yeah but she would use her intelligence to either get out of it or learn how to handle the situation."

I shrugged, "so Darien, what exactly are we supposed to do at these things? This isn't exactly a club; I don't really feel comfortable getting too crazy with the dancing since we're at school and not in the city."

"Well, aside from what you've seen so far, there are a lot of games to play, like beer pong, Cards Against Humanity, bag toss, and there's a pool outback."

"Ah yes! I wore my swimsuit underneath my dress just in case; I was hoping there would be one! You guys want to come?" Rei smiled, started to head towards the back.

"Actually I didn't think to plan ahead, I didn't wear my suit."

"That's okay; underwear is essentially the same thing."

"Eh, that's okay, you go ahead." Rei waved and bounced off, leaving me alone with Darien, not that I was complaining.

"Bummer, I think I would've liked to see you in a bathing suit," Darien laughed.

"Are you hitting on me?"

"Maybe. Depends."

"On?"

"Whether you like it or not."

"Maybe. Depends."

He laughed, it was a nice laugh, soft and easy, cute really. Grabbing my hand, he led me outside to a bench right under a tree.

"So…"

"So…"

"Tell me something," he prompted.

"What should I tell you?"

"I don't know. This is our first date isn't it? Officially I mean. Shouldn't we be using it to get to know each other better?"

"Touché. What would you like to know?"

"Honestly, everything. There is so much that I'd like to learn about you."

"Really?"

"Yeah. How about just start from the beginning?"

"Okay so well when a mommy and daddy love each other very much-"

"No!" he laughed, "I meant like what were you like as a kid, what did you always want to be when you grew up, do you have any siblings, any hobbies, any really fun vacations or experiences?"

"Wow um, well I hate to disappoint you but there's really not much to tell. I don't have any family; I never have…so no vacations and no ambitions aside from just being able to provide for myself."

"You don't have parents?" he asked slowly.

I shook my head.

"Oh Serena, I'm so sorry, do you mind if I ask what happened?"

"I actually would rather not talk about it if that's okay, at least not here."

"Oh of course, I won't push anything on you, if one day you want to tell me about it, well I'd be happy to listen and to be there for you."

"Thank you, I appreciate that."

"Okay well let's not talk about the past then, how bout we talk about your currant life and future life? Let's start easy; what's your favorite color?"

"Can you take a guess?"

Darien grinned and checked me out, "is it black?"

"Ding ding ding!"

"Okay, let's go one harder then, what's your favorite meal?"

"You'll laugh."

"At your favorite meal?"

"Yeah."

"No I won't."

"Spaghetti and meatballs."

Darien started cracking up and I scoffed, "told you."

"I'm sorry, it's not that it's funny that that's your favorite, it's just ironic. Okay, so do you like sports or do you have any hobbies?"

"Um, wow I really am a Plain Jane. No to both really. In my spare time I mostly just listen to music and read."

"I can work with that, what kind of stuff to you read and listen to?"

"Well I really like to listen to about three different genres, metal, edm, and a subcategory of chillstep, which for me is mostly classical electric mixes. Reading wise I usually prefer fantasy fiction."

"That's really neat; maybe you could show me some of those songs sometime."

"Yeah, I'd like that," I smiled, "so what about you? What's your life story?"

"Well, I grew up with a moderately wealthy family with my parents and my little brother. We didn't have like a mansion or maids or anything, but I sure got everything I could ever want. Christmas was always my favorite time of the year. My favorite color is red, favorite meal is tacos, I love soccer but I don't really play anymore, and I also love cars, I don't have one now because I'm saving up for a real special one."

"That's awesome, what's your brother like?"

"Well, he's a junior in high school right now, and his name is Sammy, his hair is more of a dark blonde and he has green eyes unlike me."

"Do you guys get along?"

"Not really," he laughed, "we would always fight over toys when we were little and now we just kind of ignore each other."

"Oh, well I'm sorry to hear that."

"It's okay. Hey, would you excuse me for a second? I need to use the restroom."

I nodded, "I'll be here."

Luna purred at my feet for a few minutes before being startled by something.

"Luna what is it?" I asked.

Before she could reply we heard a partier off in the distance screaming. The sound was coming from away from the house, so I ran behind a tree and called Rei. Before I could even finish my transformation she was already by my side, soaking wet but ready for a fight. She transformed into her sailor persona, Sailor Mars, and we dashed off to find the danger.

A group of young adults had snuck off into a hidden area behind the house, and had been attacked by a very angry looking blue creature. This one was very humanoid, with huge breasts and prominent facial features. However, she also had a tail and pointy ears so…there's that.

I threw my tiara and distracted the monster, "hey you!"

The monster tossed aside a boy that I recognized from my math class, and ran towards me at lightning speed. Like so fast that I didn't even have time to react. I was knocked down by a shadow that blurred my vision, and once everything slowed down I realized that Tuxedo Mask had come to my rescue once again, and just in time.

Rei's eyes glazed over upon seeing the man before her and i could tell she was near drooling. I rolled my eyes at her, "Rei focus!"

She blinked, "right! Mars…Fire…IGNITE!" Fire shot from Sailor Mars's fingertips and blasted the creature back. She screeched in pain but it only slowed her down for a second.

"Now Sailor Moon!" I heard.

I whipped out my wand and spun it around in my hand, yelling my mantra. The creature was blasted back and suddenly phased into the sky. I turned back to Tuxedo Mask just before he started floating away and called after him.

"Until we meet again Sailor Moon!"

"But wait, why do you always bail so soon?" he was gone before I even finished my question.

"Oh man what a hottie!" Rei exclaimed.

"Sailor Mars!" I laughed, "you don't even know what he looks like under that mask!"

"Oh come on! You know you agree."

"Okay maybe, he looks like he's got a rockin bod under that tux."

Rei and I laughed and headed back to an area where we could de-transform. The people the monster had attacked all woke up as if they had just fallen asleep, and began going about their business as if nothing had happened, and back at the house the party was still going strong as if no one had even known something had happened. Rei and I went back to the bench that I was sitting at with Darien, but he wasn't there.

"He can't be still in the bathroom, right?"

"I doubt it, not unless he's having some serious issues in there."

"Ew. Let's look and see if we can find him." Rei nodded and we went inside. After checking every single bathroom and asking around for him for around ten minutes I finally decided to text him, since I finally had his phone number, I figured I'd better get some use out of it.

It wasn't until I had gone home and climbed into bed that I finally received a reply that read: I'm so sorry, I started not feeling well and I went to find you to tell you I needed to go home, but you were gone.

I sighed and texted him back saying I forgave him, and although I wasn't lying, it still kept me up all night thinking about why he would ditch twice in a row. Maybe he didn't like me as much as he led on.

Chapter 3

Amy knocked on my door a few days later; I had barely heard her over my music blaring. I jumped out of bed and turned my speaker down almost all the way, and opened the door.

"Sorry to bother you Serena but I was wondering if…you would want to accompany me to the mall? I'm in need of some new shoes but I really didn't want to go alone."

I shrugged, "sure, I've been needing some new nail polish anyways, let's go."

"Thank you, I very much appreciate it."

"No big," I waved.

Luna meowed as a reminder not to leave her behind (I couldn't go anywhere without her after that first monster attack) and I opened my arms for her. She jumped into them and we headed out. The bus was crowded at that time, and the mall was no better. We went from shoe store to shoe store looking for something for Amy but she was surprisingly very picky when it came to shoes.

Eventually I dragged Amy into Spencer's, a store with a very dark humor, and I was fine, but it made her very uncomfortable.

"Why are we here?" she asked.

"Sorry, I know this store isn't really what you're into, but I needed a new lip ring."

She nodded and followed me to the piercing section. I could tell she was attempting to avoid eye contact with anyone and also not look at the sex toys on the back wall. Once I found what I was looking for she practically dragged me out of the store. Her face was red as a tomato and her muscles were tensed.

It wasn't long before my muscles tensed too, something in my body was telling me that someone was in danger, and Luna meowed in my ear to confirm this. We ran out of the mall with Amy in tow to find a bazar looking creature and multiple victims lying beneath him. Upon seeing us, the monster reached out with his long tentacles and grabbed Amy and I, slowly sucking us towards him. Amy screamed and I jumped at the sound. At that point I was slowly starting to get used to these monsters, and I wasn't afraid of them, they were more of a nuisance than anything, but they try to hurt a friend of mine and they're going to get the horns.

Amy screamed at t eh top of her lungs and a weird blue light in an odd shape appeared on her forehead.

"What the hell?"

"That's a sign!" Luna yelled, "Serena! Transform now!"

"Oh, right!" I was shocked and momentarily forgot my job. I quickly reached into my pocket and pulled out my black and gold compact. Once I shouted Moon Prism Power Makeup the creature was blasted off of me and I transformed into Sailor Moon.

Amy screamed again as the creature pulled her up to him. Luna jumped up and threw a new wand at me. This one was blue and had the same symbol on it that had appeared on Amy's forehead.

"Give that to Amy!" Luna yelled.

"Moon Tiara Magic!" I swung my arm around and threw my tiara, which sliced off the tentacle that was holding Amy, and she was released. She fell to the ground gasping for air.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"Amy! You are Sailor Mercury!"

I gave Amy the wand and she stood up.

"Amy, shout Mercury Star Power and hold that wand up!" Luna informed. She did so and within seconds Amy had transformed into an outfit very similar to my own, only the blue on her outfit was a very light like ice-blue, instead of dark blue, and she had hightops instead of knee high boots.

"Wow! The nerds got something in her after all!" I exclaimed.

Without hesitation, she threw her first attack, knowing exactly what to say and how to do it. The monster screamed and fought back, he lunged at the two of us and we jumped back, just barely dodging the blow. A rose streamed down from the sky and cracked the ground it landed on. We all turned to find Tuxedo Mask standing on top of a light pole above us.

"Looks you have a new team member, Sailor Moon," the cloaked man nodded at Amy and then jumped down to where we were.

"Looks like it. Why don't you stick around this time, Tuxedo Mask?"

"We shall see."

I winked at him and he smiled. His flash of brilliant white teeth reminded me of something, but I couldn't place what, as I was too busy admiring his handsome qualities. Fawning over a man like that really wasn't my forte, but he was the whole package, tall dark (my version of dark, not the connoted version) and handsome.

Just before I got hit in the head, I shook the thoughts of him away and blocked the attack. Countering the attack I hit him with the Moon Healing Activation, and the creature was gone.

"Whoo way to go Sailor Mercury! Way to go Tux-" I turned back and he had already fled.

"Oh why does he always do that?"

"Wow, he was quit the looker."

"You're telling me! Fuck, I can't believe you're a Sailor Scout too! What are the chances?"

"This…doesn't even seem real. So I'm like…a superhero?"

"I'd like to think so."

"And Luna, you can talk?"

Luna nodded, "in fact, I think it's time we have our first Sailor Scout meeting. I think there's a lot that needs to be said. We can do that tomorrow though, after you've had some rest."

"Yeah that sounds good. You okay?" I asked Amy.

"Ah yeah, let's get back to shopping. What's next?"

"Hot topic, for my nail polish."

"Is that a-"

"There's no sex stuff there," I laughed. She breathed a sigh of relief and followed me back into the mall. It was weird being able to so calmly go about the rest of my day whereas most people would've been traumatized by what had just happened. It was surprising that Amy wasn't hyperventilating.

Once in Hot Topic, I picked out a couple colors in a bottle shaped like a skull and preceded to the checkout. Hot Topic and Spencer's were two stores that were really the only ones I shopped at in the mall, as they were the only ones that carried what one may call "emo" stuff. However, the Hot Topic was right next to a jewelry store, and as we passed by it, I noticed a familiar figure out of the corner of my eye.

"Darien?" The figure turned around upon hearing his name and smiled at me, he waved a bit awkwardly and I took a few steps into the store to talk to him. I noticed he seemed a bit rattled, or nervous maybe.

"Heh-hey Serena! How are you?"

"Fine…thanks, you remember Amy, right?"

"Oh yes, your roommate, hi there."

"Hello," Amy smiled. She was so genuine.

"What're…you doing here, in the jewelry store?" I asked.

"I was…looking for a crystal…pair of earrings! For my mom, for her birthday!"

"You sure you don't have a secret fiancée?" I joked. He laughed, but it seemed almost forced.

"Of course not! But hey can we talk in private for a minute since I've got you?"

"Luna and I will just…be over by the pop machine," Amy mused.

"Thanks Amy," Darien smiled. He took my hand and guided me a few steps outside of the jewelry store, "I wanted to apologize in person for the other night, I should've waited till I found you before leaving."

"It's okay, you're forgiven. Just if it ever happens again, keep your phone on you this time, okay?"

"Fair enough, but I promise you, it will never happen again."

"How can you guarantee that?"

"Let's just say I realized something, something that will help prevent that from ever happening again."

"Well…okay then. Amy and I were just about to head out, would you like to come back with us?"

"Sure, I'd love to."

Once back at school, Amy headed off to our dorm, saying something about how much homework she needed to start on, while I went a different direction with Darien. We went to his dorm, which was vacant aside from us. We sat on his couch, both exhausted from the day.

"Do you like popcorn?" he asked.

"Oh I like all foods, except the healthy ones."

Darien laughed, "Actually popcorn is the healthiest junk food you can eat."

I pretended to be surprised as I turned on the TV, "should we watch a movie?"

"Yeah, I'm down for anything."

I looked through his collection and found that most of his movies were family friendly comedies, but then there was one far away from the rest of the movies that actually seemed intriguing: a horror movie about a girl and her creepy neighbor.

"Oh that one's actually not mine, that one's my roommate's."

"I'm sure he wouldn't mind. You aren't…afraid, are you?"

"Who, me? No way! I love horror movies!"

I rolled my eyes as the popcorn started popping in the microwave. Once it was ready, Darien sat down next to me and we took turns reaching into the bag and grabbing a few bites. It wasn't long before the movie started getting to the intense stuff and suddenly the popcorn was flung all over the couch. I was laughing my ass off but Darien hadn't seemed to like that.

"Oh I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings, I just think you're cute when you're scared is all."

"Thanks" he replied sarcastically.

As the movie rolled to the credits, Darien turned to me, "so had you been reading what's been circulating on the internet right now?"

"Not really, I've been pretty busy lately, what is it?"

"Well apparently there have been some attacks around here…and some sort of vigilantes fighting the attackers."

I realized what he was talking about and was shocked to hear that is was going around as a rumor.

"What kind of attacks?" I asked.

"Apparently no one can remember, they just remember being attacked, passing out, and then seeing some girl in a skirt when they woke up."

"That's…weird. That's all it said."

"Pretty much. I think it was mostly click bait, I'm sure none of its true, but it's still weird to think about."

"Yeah…how strange." I looked up and the man before me, his eyes sparkling in the dimly lit room.

"Darien I …" before I could finish what I was saying, Darien tilted my chin up and kissed me gently. For once, he was the initiator, and the one that deepened the kiss. I leaned into his strong arms, captivated by the lust. It was almost weird to think of all the things that had changed in my life over the last year. I went from being that "goth girl" orphan with no friends to being a Sailor Scout with friends AND a popular boyfriend. I wasn't going to complain though. At first I didn't think I really cared whether I had friends or not, but after Rei and Darien and Luna and even Amy came into my life, now I couldn't imagine it without them.

We were still kissing as my thoughts came to a close and it became just thoughts of the two of us. This was more or less our third date and already I was falling for him hard. I don't know what it is about him, something just felt like it was drawing me to him, almost like...I knew him in a previous life or something, and we're destined to be together again.

But that's ridiculous, things like that aren't real. Those are just things that happen in books and movies.

Love is real though. Do I feel love for Darien? I'm scared to think that maybe I do...

Darien pulled away just enough to stop the kiss and I exhaled deeply.

"Is there something wrong?" I asked.

"No, nothing, just think that...maybe we should take things slow."

"Well...I can't exactly say that you're wrong, but most guys I know aren't like that."

"I'm not most guys."

I smiled, I'm beginning to realize that.

I heard a beep coming from my backpack and pulled out my compact. Rei was calling me.

I lied to Darien, saying it was my emergency pager, and that Amy needed me, and reluctantly I dashed out the door. As soon as I was far enough away I transformed into Sailor Moon and ran to where Rei was, in a park not too far away from the school.

"Sailor Moon!" Sailor Mars screamed. She was being held against a man with long white hair, his hands around her head like he could snap her neck at any second.

"Let her go you creep!" I yelled.

"Not until I get what I came for!"

"What are you needing?"

"Something that you brats can't provide. I've heard you're demolishing all my monsters, how dare you?"

"They were attacking my people! Who are you anyways?"

"Someone you don't want to mess with!"

"Come on, that's not helpful. If its money you need, I don't have much but I could help somehow..."

"I don't need something as mundane as Earthly currency."

"Earthly?"

The man released Rei and she jumped back. I stood in front of her in case he wanted to try anything funny, and he laughed.

"You're no match for my power!" He exclaimed while beginning to hover above us. I gasped and watched as the man floated up and then just disappeared without a trace.

I shook my head, "I don't understand."

Rei patted my back, "I don't either but thanks for your help."

I nodded and we started walking back to school, not de-transforming until we knew we were out of anyone's sight.

"You know what's weird? Tuxedo Mask didn't show up this time, I wonder where he could be."

Rei shrugged and sighed, "maybe he thinks we don't need his help."

"I mean...we don't really, all he does is throw his beautifully sharp rose and then say 'good job' and then he runs away."

"Yeah what's that all about?"

I shrugged again, just ready to get home.

When I got there Amy was passed out on the couch with a textbook in her hand. I gently went over to her and Luna hopped in her lap, waking her up.

"Hey Ames, you okay?"

"Oh, yes, sorry Serena."

"Did you hear your communicator?"

She looked at me, obviously confused.

"I guess it must've gone off while you were sleeping, your communicator that Luna gave you, I can call you on it whenever there's an attack and we need you."

"There was an attack?"

"Yeah, but it's okay, Rei and I handled it. You've been under a lot of stress lately with finals coming up and all so don't worry about it, although do you think you'll still be able to hang out tomorrow so we can talk about all this."

"I wouldn't miss it, I promise. I've been given this gift to help people and I want to do it, I know it'll be tough mixed in with school and all but I'm gunna try my best."

"That's really admirable of you," I smiled, "I'm surprised at myself for saying this but I think the three of us plus whoever Tuxedo Mask is, we can really be a great team."

"I agree, although I haven't fought with Rei yet so I guess I'm biased, but from what I heard from you she seems like a good person."

"She is, I think you'll like her, she's a bit hard to get along with at first, but I think you'll grow to love her just as I have."

The next days' classes went by pretty normally, and afterwards I met up with Luna, Rei, and Amy and the library. We found a quiet corner that was vacant and sat down.

"So Luna, what's first on the agenda?" Rei asked.

"Well I thought I would start from the very beginning and telling you all about why you're here today."

"And like why we have superpowers?"

"Precisely. I am here on Earth because I am on a mission to find the Moon Princess. I was sent here to find and awaken the Sailor Scouts to help me with this mission, you see, the Negaverse is a place where all those villains are coming from. They're real bad news. They are trying to find what's called the millennium silver crystal."

"What's that?" Amy asked.

"It's a crystal that holds all of Queen Serenity's powers. All I know is that they're after it."

The three of us looked around at each other, shocked that there could be such evil in the world.

"So how do we end this then?"

"I'm not sure. Who knows how many of them there are or to what lengths they're willing to go to get what they want."

"Well next time we see them then, the game is over. I say we sack em," I suggested.

"Yeah," Rei agreed, "take them down when they least expect it and ask them what's going on. Why did they just start attacking Earth anyways?"

Luna shook her head, "I think maybe they were just awakened too but I'm not sure how."

"So Luna, why us, why are we the ones to fulfill the mission?"

"I just know that we have to find the Princess, and I think you guys have been chosen to find her."

"So wait, we have to find a princess, and the crystal?"

"Yes, we can't let the people from the Negaverse get their hands on the crystal; it would be very bad if they did. If we find it, we'll protect it until we find the princess."

I nodded, "okay, wow, I never thought I would be the one to have to use princess multiple times in conversation. I mean normally the only time I use it is when I'm describing someone who's a total snob."

Rei laughed, "yeah who knew we'd end up some princess's guardians."

"I just can't believe any of this is even real," Amy stated, "I mean, the nerd in me says there's no way this is all possible, but the kid in me is so excited that it is!"

"I know. This all seems so surreal."

"I just wish that I had more information," Luna sighed.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Well, it seems that part of my memory is missing. I know there's a lot more information, I just can't reach it."

"You mean you can't remember anything?"

"I remembered enough to meet you guys, and I remembered enough to know about the Negaverse, and my mission, but that its. All the details are missing. I bet you I know where we can find the princess, it's in the back of my brain somewhere, I just can't access it. Or I might even know why the Negaverse attacked the first time. Who knows what information we're missing out on!"

"What if there's another Scout?" Amy inquired.

"There could be, hard to say. Considering there's seven billion people in the world, its very possible."

"Maybe Tuxedo Mask is a Sailor Scout!" Rei exclaimed.

"Don't be so absurd Rei," I laughed, "a man can't be a Sailor Scout, right?"

Luna shrugged, "again, nothing."

I groaned, "okay so then here's the plan. Finals are next week, once we're finished we'll spend all summer looking for the princess and her silver crystal. Who's in?"

Rei stuck her hand out and I set mine on top of hers, then Amy on mine, and Luna on hers. We raised our hands in unison and started planning our first quest.

Chapter 4

The sky rumbled above me as I looked around, trying to find something…someone? I could feel my heart racing as I nearly tripped over my long white gown. I turned a corner and suddenly the person I had been looking for was standing right in front of me; only, there was something wrong. The man was in war gear, a battle suit fit for a king, with a sword at his hip. He reached out to me, and then the floor gave out beneath us. I never saw the man's face, just his anxiety, his anger, his will to hold onto me. I felt myself starting to fall into the ground and he tried to save me but it was too late.

Falling in my dream had startled me enough to wake me up, and I felt my pulse only to find that it was racing as much as it had in the dream. But what did that dream mean? Or did it even mean anything?

"Are you okay?" Luna asked. She had been sleeping next to me and I had woken her up.

"Uh yeah, I'm okay, just a bad dream."

"Well try to get back to sleep; you've got a big day ahead of you."

I nodded and snuggled up to her, "you're right, its probably just nervous jitters. I haven't really studied enough and I'm just worried about finals, that's all." I hoped that I wasn't just saying that to myself.

I woke up again a few hours later to my alarm clock blaring. Hitting the snooze wasn't going to do me much good on the day of finals, so I groaned and sat up, and then went through my normal morning routine again.

"I'm so glad this is my last day of classes for a while," I told Amy as we ate breakfast.

She rolled her eyes, "you're telling me, I've got three summer classes!"

"Hey that's not my fault miss smarty-pants."

"I have to finish my degree as quickly as I can so that I can go to med school, you know this! Taking lots of summer classes is the only way to do it."

"I know, I know. I'm actually quite jealous or your self-discipline."

She waved her hand as if to say it was no big deal.

"Seriously, I struggle to get the grades I do and I mean, I do okay, but its for sure not doctor material. I wish."

"You'll do just fine today, don't stress too much. You should head out a few minutes early so you can cram a bit beforehand."

"Sure, thanks Ames, I'll see you later," I waved goodbye and Luna hopped into my arms as we headed out.

Cramming last second didn't really seem to help, but I think I did okay on my finals. The second my last class of the day got out I immediately when to the court yard to soak up some sunlight and chill out. Headphones in, I laid down in the grass on top of the hill in the middle of the courtyard and closed my eyes. Not long after, Darien nudged me and I jumped. He sat down next to me and I, instead of taking out my head phones to talk to him, just handed one ear to him, and scooted closer. It was probably a good half hour before either of us actually said anything. We were just enjoying relaxing and listening to music together, neither of us really wanted it to end.

"Why don't we go back to my place?" Darien eventually said.

"I'd like that."

Darien took my hand in his and led the way to his dorm. Surprisingly, his roommate wasn't home, and also surprisingly, Darien led me straight to his bedroom.

I oo-ed sarcastically and he laughed, "look, I know I said I wanted to take things slow but, I don't think I can wait anymore, I'm really falling hard for you, Serena."

I could feel the heat rushing to my cheeks, "I feel the same way."

"Mind showing me some more of those songs you're listening to?"

I nodded and pulled my speaker out of my bag. I hooked my phone up to it and began to play Sex on Fire by Kings of Leon.

"Ah, this is a good one," Darien smiled.

"I thought you'd say that."

"Now what were you saying?"

"Honestly, I know this might sound weird, but there's a part of me that just feels so…familiar…with you. I don't know what it is, but its almost as if I knew you in a previous life or something. Silly huh?"

"I'm actually really glad you said that, because I've been feeling the same way."

"Its just like…after my parents…you know…I just felt so lost and alone, and now I feel like myself again after so many years."

Darien paused momentarily, but then in response, just calmly kissed me. It was deep and true and so meaningful. We kissed for what felt like forever, and eventually he started getting more into it. The kisses became more ridged, more hungry, our breathing started to get heavier and our hands were all over each other. I couldn't keep myself away from him any longer. Quickly his hands shifted down to the edge of my shirt. I raised my arms up and he removed the item of clothing then moved right on to his own top. Jumping up, I wrapped my legs around Darien's waist, and he pushed me up against the wall, trailing kisses up and down my neck. I arched my back in pleasure, my grip on him tightening. At some point he shifted from the wall to the bed and he shimmied off his pants then pounced onto the bed. I followed the lead and slipped off my shorts, leaving only my thong and bra left. However, it wasn't long before those were gone too, and Darien and I were under the covers with our bodies pressed up against each other.

"I hope it's not too soon, but I think I love you," Darien sighed.

"I think I love you too," I replied.

The kissing continued and I could feel those fireworks that everyone talks about. It almost seemed…magical…the sort of night that a superhero and her lover would have. Little did he know.

I awoke the next morning back to back with Darien. I rolled out of bed and headed towards the shower without even thinking about listening to see if his roommate was home. As my luck would have it, he was, and he was in the hallway when I tried to pass from the bedroom to the bathroom.

"Uh…"

"What the fuck?" I screamed. I ran into the bathroom, grabbed a towel and wrapped up, then went back out, "you didn't see anything!"

"Now I know why he likes you so much!" he winked.

I was mortified. Darien opened his door, rubbing his eyes, also completely naked.

"Darien you didn't tell me your little Goth girl had such a rockin bod!"

I could have died from the embarrassment.

"Dude, have some decency, close your eyes, look away!" Darien growled.

"Okay so its okay for you to walk around butt naked but not your sexy girlfriend?"

I raised my eyebrow, why was he okay completely naked, I mean I get that they're both guys, but Amy and I didn't walk around our dorm naked like that. Guys are weird.

"You can look, but you can't touch," Darien laughed.

His roommate went into his room then and locked the door, I breathed a sigh of relief that he was gone, but I was glad that he would be graduating the next day and I would hopefully never see the man again.

"Come on Meatball Head, take a shower with me?"

"That's not my name, but sure, why not?"

Darien turned the nozzle on and water started pouring out the spout. He then turned to me, "you okay?"

"I guess, are you? I mean you're roommate just saw your….girlfriend…naked, aren't you upset?"

"I mean I guess a little, but its not like it was anyone's fault. Plus, we'll be moving out of this place in a week so we'll probably never see each other again after that."

"So is that what we are then?"

"What do you mean?"

"I am your girlfriend, right?"

"Well I'd sure hope so, after last night. I mean, I thought it was pretty nice, didn't you?"

"Definitely." I reached up and kissed him sweetly as he unwrapped my towel and it dropped to the floor. His hands grazed my skin so delicately that a shiver ran up my spine. Darien took a step into the shower and pulled me in with him. The water was hot but when he pushed me up against the shower wall I shivered again.

Darien's hand glided down my side and then my leg, which he then lifted up and placed around his waist. His hands roamed up to my chest as my hand clenched onto his back and I gasped at the sudden pressure. My lips ran up and down Darien's neck; he pulled my hair to the side and did the same to my neck. It didn't up being much of a shower, since we probably got more dirty than clean, but it was still the nicest shower I'd ever taken, even if we did run out of hot water halfway through.

Getting out was a little tough, my legs and back was pretty sore, but it was all worth it.

"You're so beautiful," Darien gawked as I got dressed in yesterday's clothes.

I blushed, "you just wait till I'm old and fat, and then you won't be saying that anymore."

"Are you insinuating that we'll still be together when we're old and grey?"

"Well I don't have any plans to break up with you, do you?"

"Absolutely not."

"Well then if we never break up then obviously we'll still be together when we're old and fat, wont we?"

Darien laughed, "I guess so. That's okay; we can be old and fat together. "

"That sounds nice," I paused, something seemed wrong. I felt like I couldn't start planning a future with someone that I was keeping something from. Although, in my defense, the secret I was keeping was for his benefit, to protect him from the Negaverse, but still.

"Something wrong?"

"Ah…no," I lied.

"Come on, let's go do something fun."

"Like a date?"

"Yeah."

"Most people go on a date before sleeping with someone."

Darien laughed, "I guess we must not be like most couples then. Where would you want to go?"

"I don't know, how about we go get some ice cream, and then we could take a walk in the park?"

"Sounds perfect."

After getting some ice cream we sat down at a bench in the middle of the park. The weather was a perfect 75 degrees with a warm breeze and blue skies. We sat for a while just cloud watching and occasionally kissing. It was nice just to sit and enjoy someone's company. It was never awkward, even in our silence. Being with Darien was very comfortable, like being with someone who you've known your whole life.

However, our comfortability didn't last forever, as Luna started to get a bad vibe and I had to excuse myself. It wasn't so easy to get away, as I really couldn't think up a very good excuse for why I was leaving, and once I got to the sight of the attack, I felt really bad for leaving him there like that. How I wished I could've told him the truth. Maybe one day.

The attacker was a green monster with sharp teeth and claws, however, this time, there was a man hovering above the monster with his arms crossed, as if supervising. We held off the attacker but he was the strongest one we've fought yet. At one point I was tossed back and I would've hit my head on the concrete had it not been for Tuxedo Mask catching me at the last second. He held me in his arms and I looked up at him. Something about him just seemed so familiar, so right, yet so wrong. What was it about that man?

"Uh thanks…"

"Don't mention it," he shrugged, and then set me on my feet. He tipped his hat to me then jumped up and attacked the monster. We fought for a while longer, and finally the monster was defeated. The man that had been watching the whole thing floated down from the sky and landed softly on the ground. It was a different guy than last time. This one was bigger built and had ginger hair.

"And you are?"

"None of your concern! Now where did you hide it you Sailor brats!"

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

"Its not here, its not anywhere," Tuxedo Mask replied. I looked back at him, thoroughly confused.

"What's not here?"

"I think they're talking about the crystal," Luna whispered.

"Tuxedo Mask, are you talking about the crystal?"

He nodded.

"What do you want that for?"

"If you find it, and you turn it in to me, I will reward you by sparing your life," the man laughed.

"Why do you guys need it?" Rei screamed, getting frustrated.

"Do you not understand little girl, the crystal is very powerful. My Master needs this power."

"Who is your master?" Amy asked.

"Queen Beryl. She's very angry that we have not found it yet."

"Well luckily he's a bit more informative than the other guy," I whispered to Luna. She shushed me and stepped towards the man.

"This Queen Beryl, what else has she told you?"

He shrugged, "wouldn't you like to know."

"Um, yes, that's why we're asking," I growled.

"Well, I think we've said enough, till next time, Sailor Scouts," the man waved from his forehead and vanished into thin air.

Tuxedo Mask started to walk away to but I grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back.

"Okay mister, you need to start talking."

"Sailor Moon."

"Tuxedo Mask, why are you looking for the crystal?"

He sighed, "its…a long story."

"But how can we trust you when you are after the same thing as…as THEM."

"You never can tell can you?"

"I thought you were on our side?"

"I'm not on anyone's side but my own. See you next time, Sailor Moon." He tipped his hat and jumped so high that he was gone in just a few leaps. I sighed in frustration.

"Why is no one giving us any real answers here?"

"I don't know, but the fact that Tuxedo Mask is after the crystal…it just doesn't make sense," Amy observed.

The next day was Darien's graduation, and I was going in support of him, but his family was going to be there, so I was a bit nervous to be meeting them for the first time.

"Serena, I'd like you to meet my mom, dad, and brother, Sammy."

"Hi," I waved, "its nice to meet you guys."

"Likewise," his father smiled.

His parents had very sweet and genuine smiles, while his brother barely looked at me, too involved in his handheld.

"Sammy, be polite," his mother nudged.

Sammy looked up from his tablet and gave me a half smile, then went back to him game.

"Oh you'll have to excuse him, kids these days," she laughed. I nodded in agreement, but really he wasn't that much younger than me.

The actual ceremony took forever, just like high school did, and by the end of it I was mentally exhausted. When it was finally over, Darien met up with us and we all went out to dinner to celebrate. It was actually really nice; I was surprised how non-judgmental his family was. I had been very nervous going in since my appearance was something that most parents considered sketchy, and due to the fact that I can barely remember what its like to have parents, it was hard for me to know how to act around them. All of my foster parents were horrible, just one awful couple after the next. They were all judgement pieces of shit, but not Darien's parents; I think they kind of actually liked me.

When the socializing was finally over, it was Darien's last night in his dorm, so we took that opportunity to stay up late listening to music while we got him all packed up.

"Thanks for helping me," he said.

"Of course, any excuse to get some alone time with you," I winked, "actually, hanging out with your family wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I was really nervous at first."

"See? I told you they'd love you."

"I'm not used to that."

"Well get used to it, because you are a very loveable person."

"Doubtful, but thanks."

He kissed me for a moment before getting back to packing.

"I don't think I ever asked you…what do you have planned now?"

"Well, until I can get a stable job in my field, I'm moving back in with my parents for now, but I'm hoping it won't take me long to find that job."'

"What job would that be?"

"Some sort of business management, but you know, I've actually really been getting into crystals lately, so maybe I could be a Jared's manager or something."

I took a step back, shocked, "crystals? Why have you been interested in them?"

He shrugged, "I just had this weird dream, I don't know I can't really explain it."

"What was your dream?"

"It was really short, I was just in this really dark place, I could hear some sort of battle going on in the distance, and then there was this…princess…I don't now, it was weird, I couldn't see her face or anything but she just kept telling me to find this crystal. I think its supposed to help me somehow."

I gasped; something about it sounded a lot like my dream, even if the dialogue was different.

"Did she specify what kind of crystal?"

He shook his head, "that's why this is so difficult."

"Well uh…maybe I could help you."

"That would be nice, thank you."

"How do we go about finding it though when we have no information?"

"The only other clue I got was that she said I would know it when I see it."

"So you just have to go around and look at every crystal ever? Is that why you were in that jewelry shop when we saw you at the mall?"

"Yeah, that was the first day that I'd had the dream."

"The first day meaning this has been a reoccurring dream for you?"

"Every single night since then."

"Oh gosh, that sounds awful, I'm so sorry Darien."

"It's okay; I just makes me wonder who this princess is and why she wants the crystal."

"Wait hang on, did this princess call it _just_ a crystal, or did she call it something else more specifically?"

"Verbatim, she said the Silver Millennium Crystal."

 _Now why would Darien be having dreams about the Silver Millennium Crystal? Could he be our first male scout? No way, its got to be something else…but what? Why would the princess be coming to him for this? Is my dream connected to his somehow?"_

"Hello? Earth to Serena!"

"I'm sorry, just lost in thought."

"I see that. Well anyways, I was saying don't worry too much about it, I mean its just a dream right? Its weird, but maybe if I don't find the crystal, nothing will happen. You don't have to help me, its okay."

"No no, I want to…its just…I had a weird dream too, and I'm kinda freaking out with the coincidences."

"Really?"

"Yeah, Darien, can you recall what you were wearing in your dream?"

"No not really, something heavy I think, I was too focused on other things to notice I guess. What was your dream?"

I waved my hand, "I'm sure its nothing, like you said. They weren't the same dream I don't know what I'm talking about."

Darien smiled and put his hand on my back. He was trying to be reassuring, but this news was definitely something that Luna and I were going to have to discuss.

Chapter 5

"Hey Amy, Rei and I are going to meet up with you after class and well go do something fun, okay?" I poked my head out of my room to talk to my roommate about our plans to hang out. She smiled in response, excited to get away from homework for a while. She left to get to her first class after that, and I was left in the dorm bored out of my mind.

"Serena, perhaps this would be a good time to continue your training?" Luna suggested.

"Eh, do I have to?"

"Do you want to defeat the Negaverse or not?"

I sighed, defeated, and lowered my head, my hair falling like drapes into my lap, "fine, but im not going alone."

The three of scouts had signed up for a gym membership a few days beforehand and had yet to go. Amy was always busy with school work even in the summer, and Rei and I were just too lazy. But Luna was right, we had responsibilities now. We needed to get into shape so that we can defeat the bad guys and save the planet. I texted Rei and she agreed to meet me at the gym. We had decided that a gym with boxing equipment would be a good fit since we were training to fight our enemies, and since it was our first time there, we were about nervous and wondering what to expect.

Our first thoughts were that the places reeked of sweat, it was dark and damp and not very clean, but it had some good equipment so as long as we had enough self-discipline, we knew we would be able to gain some muscle and skill.

One of the first people we saw after walking into the gym was a very tall person in the ring with a very steroid-induced man. We stopped to watch her box him and he was no match. Regardless of how big his muscles were, she took him down easily. It was amusing and refreshing to see a man who started out so high and mighty get set straight. The woman flipped the man onto his stomach and pinned him to the ground. He was down long enough that she won the round and she jumped up and cheered in response. The man seemed almost…broken, like his ego had been stolen from him because he lost to a girl in a fight.

Rei and I clapped which got the woman's attention.

"What do you say girls, want to try a round with me?"

I pointed to myself with raised eyebrows.

"Yeah you," she laughed.

I gulped, "uh no thank you."

The woman jumped down from the ring and wrapped a towel around her neck, "you guys new here?"

We nodded.

"Today's our first day," Rei admitted, "kind of a trial run I think, I don't know if we're cut out to be as good as you."

"Just takes lots of practice. I'm Leita, by the way."

"Its nice to meet you Leita. I'm Rei, and this is Serena."

"Its nice to meet you guys too. If you need any help I'm here all the time."

"Do you work here?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'm a personal trainer!"

"Oh," I looked at Rei, "maybe we could use a personal trainer."

Rei agreed, "would you have time for us?"

"I always make time to help people improve themselves! Oh and I'm also a great cook if you ever need one of those too," Leita laughed.

Leita, aside from being super tall, was gorgeous. She had medium length brown hair that she had pulled back into a ponytail, super green eyes, an obviously toned body, and cute little rose earrings.

"I love your earrings," I admitted.

"Oh thank you, an old boyfriend gave them to me but they were just too pretty to throw away!"

I laughed and Leita showed us around the gym. First she had the two of us stretch out, and neither of us was very flexible yet so by the end of just stretching we were already sore. After that we all did some weights, both lower and upper body, and then we moved on to a boxing lesson. It was actually a lot more fun than I thought it would be.

"With Leita's help, I bet we'll be able to defeat the Negaverse in no time!" I whispered to Rei.

"Absolutely, this girl is nuts! In the good way I mean."

"I wish we could just ask someone to be a Sailor Scout. I mean I know that's not how it works, but she would be such a great edition."

"For sure. Hey Leita!"

Leita looked up from her clip board and took a few steps closer to us, "what up?"

"After we're done here we were actually going to go to the bowling alley with a friend of ours, would you want to come?"

"Wait really? Most people can barely handle me as a trainer, let alone a friend. You want me to go out with you?"

"Why not, you seem really nice," I replied.

"I think some people think I'm intimidating," she blushed.

"Well we think you're great, and we want you to hang out with us, what do you say?"

"Well sure, I'd love to, thanks for the invite!"

We nodded and the three of us hit the showers before changing clothes and going to get Amy. We took the bus back to school, and when we got to campus Leita laughed.

"What's so funny?" I asked.

"Do you guys go to school here?"'

"Yeah, why?"

"I do too!"

"No way!" we synchronized.

"Yes! What a small world! I'll be starting my second year here in the fall, but I live off campus."

"Wow that really is small world!"

We introduced Leita to Amy and they hit it off right away. We decided we deserved some ice-cream before we went bowling, so after we were done we walked from the ice cream shop to the bowling alley. However, along the way, we passed by a construction zone that wasn't being worked on. It was almost creepy, it was dark and it had just rained that morning so it was muddy, and it was in between two other buildings, so it was like an alleyway. Just as we were passing by, we heard a scream coming from somewhere inside the construction zone. We jumped at the sound, but were ready for a fight.

"Don't worry girls, I got this," Leita said, holding us back. She ran into the construction zone and we followed after her.

"Leita wait!" I hollered. She blew me off and kept going. We followed behind, ready to transform if needed.

A young boy had been caught by a man dressed very similarly to the two men from the Negaverse.

"Hey you creep, let him go!" I yelled. Leita glared back at me as if to warn me not to get involved.

"And just who do you think you are?" the man asked.

"Just someone who cares," Leita growled, "and you?"

They boy had been knocked unconscious and was lying in front of the man that hurt him.

"I suppose you could call me Jadeite, but don't get to comfortable with it because you won't be around much longer."

I realized the man had to be from the Negaverse, monster-less or not, and I pulled my compact out of my pocket.

"No wait, you'll give up your identity!" Luna whispered.

"So what?"

Leita dashed at the man and threw a punch, he flinched but other than that he seemed unfazed. Jadeite laughed manically and held out his hand. Without even touching her, Leita was flown back, hitting her head against a structure beam.

"Leita!" I screamed, and then turned back to Jadeite, burning with rage.

"No one. Hurts. MY FRIENDS!" I screamed and threw my compact up, transforming as fast as I could. Amy and Rei quickly followed my lead and the three of us stood like Charlie's angels, ready to fight.

"You'll pay for what you've done." I growled.

Jadeite laughed again, "ah the Sailor Scouts, how nice of you to join the party. I've heard a lot about you. You see, I believe this boy is the key to finding the crystal."

I paused, "how so?"

"Because he has a piece of it, inside of him; all I need to do is extract it!"

He went to grab the boy but he was blown back by something that looked eerily like lightening. We turned to look at Leita and her forehead was glowing green, with the rest of her face burning red with anger.

"Leita?" I ran over to my friend, but I was almost afraid to touch her.

"That creep thinks its okay to hurt children? I'll show him what real pain is!" she growled.

"Serena! You know what this means right?" Luna spoke.

Realization struck, "holy fuck Mars our wish came true!"

"You're a Sailor Scout too!" Rei exclaimed.

"A what?" Leita asked. Luna handed her her very own wand in a deep green, just like her eyes, and told her what to do.

"A cat just talked to me," she choked.

"Yes and she's a real smart-ass," I added, "Now hurry up! Transform!"

Leita shook her head as if not believing that it were all real, but did as requested anyways. Leita transformed, reviling her special skill to be thunder and lightning. Her Sailor suit was just like the rest of ours, her respective color being that deep green to match her eyes. She looked down at herself and blushed, I'm assuming someone like her wasn't used to wearing anything that might be perceived as 'sexy', but she did well to pull it off.

Jadeite rose from the ground and scratched his head, then murmured something unintelligible.

"What's he saying?" Leita asked. I shrugged but all of a sudden the boy stood up, his eyes glazed over like a zombie, and just like the snap of fingers, he turned into a monster.

"What the-" Leita stammered.

I took a step forward and raised my tiara, "Moon Tiara Magic!" The tiara spun out and ripped into the monster, who cried out in pain. He retaliated by shooting some type of acid at us, something that melted any substance it touched.

"Watch out guys!" I warned.

Amy used her powers to freeze the acid, but it didn't hold and the monster grabbed me. I screamed for only a second before I was rescued by…you guessed it…Tuxedo Mask. He held me bridal style and jumped up into the beams of the construction; and then sat me down on a metal pole.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, fine. Why did you save me?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean if you're only after the crystals…you don't care about me…why would you save me?"

I looked into his eyes, pretty much the only part of him that wasn't covered by clothing or mask, and pleaded for a real answer.

"Because, because there is just something about you. I don't know Sailor Moon, but I'm not your alley. I need that crystal and I will do anything to get it."

"But why do you need it?"

"The princess says it will help me remember."

"You know the princess? Me and the other Scouts, we've been looking for her everywhere and-"

He shook his head, "I didn't speak to her directly, I just know, okay?"

"Okay but,"

Tuxedo Mask stood up, "I am not your friend Sailor Moon, mark my words, I won't hesitate to take you down to get that crystal if I have to."

"But-"

He bent down and kissed me on the lips. _What the actual fuck?_

As he broke away from the kiss, and jumped back into the fray, something fell out of his pocket. I tried to call him to come back but he didn't hear me. I put the object away and told myself I would give it back at the end of the fight, and then I too jumped back down into the fray. Both the monster and the girls I could tell were exhausted.

"Sailor Moon, do it now!" Luna screeched.

I nodded and reached for my wand, "Moon Healing Activation!"

The monster screamed and shrunk back down to small-boy size, and was back to normal. The boy passed out cold, a small blue crystal appearing next to him. Before I even had time to react, Tuxedo Mask and Jadeite ran to the crystal, and Tuxedo Mask got to it just a second before Jadeite.

As soon as the crystal touched Tuxedo Mask's fingertips he was gone. I called out to him but he was nowhere to be found. Jadeite stomped his foot. "Now look what you've done! Queen Beryl will have my head!" And with that said, he was gone too.

We rushed to the boy's side and, momentarily forgetting about what had just happened, we de-transformed and took him to the hospital. Luckily the boy was okay, just very sore and exhausted, as were we. After working out all day and then kicking but, Rei and I were beat. And before I even had time to really comprehend the events of the day, I was out like a light.

The next morning I stretched out, stiff from sleeping on the four with my two best friends and our newest member of the group. We had all just crashed at Amy and I's dorm after the fight, too exhausted to even go bowling.

"Morning everyone," I yawned. Rei and Leita grumbled but slowly woke up. Amy had already been up for a while, and she was already dressed and making breakfast.

"Oh here let me help you with that, I'm a great cook!" Leita exclaimed once she smelled the pancakes. Amy thanked her and twenty minutes later we had a breakfast fit for a kingdom.

"Wow Leita you are an amazing cook!"

"Eh, my parents were never really around so I had to cook for myself a lot and I got really good at it."

"I'll say."

After breakfast we began to go over what happened yesterday, and Luna suggested we talk about what we could do to improve the next time there's an attack.

"Well for starters, y'all really need to go to the gym more." Leita suggested.

"That's for sure," I said, rubbing my neck, "I've never been so sore in my life."

"It'll go away in a couple days, you're body just has to get used to it."

"So what happened to the boy?"

"I went and did my research after you guys fell asleep last night, and it turns out that the crystal was split into seven pieces, and each piece went into a person with a pure heart. But in order to obtain it, that monstrous thing has to come out," Luna explained.

"That makes no sense," I stammered, folding my arms.

"I know, but now Tuxedo Mask has one of the seven pieces! We need to take it back from him, and then find the others and protect them!"

"How do we do that? He isn't exactly going to hand them over," Rei pointed out.

"I'm not sure, but we've got to try. If he gets his hands on the rest of the crystal, who knows what could happen!"

"Wait, Serena, what happened when Tuxedo Mask whisked you away?" Amy asked.

"Oh my gosh I almost forgot. So I asked him essentially who's side he was on and he basically said that he would kill me if he had to to get the crystal. I asked why and he said the princess told him to. Then he kissed me and left. And then he dropped this," I fished the object out of my pocket.

"What is it?" the girls asked, leaning in to get a closer look.

"It looks like…a locket?" I observed the strange thing; it reminded me a lot of my compact, as it was black with a gold moon in the middle, although, this one spun when you opened the locket. It looked similar to a pocket watch, chain and everything, except it was star shaped and played a beautiful lullaby when you opened it.

"Aw, how sweet," Leita sighed, "that's a beautiful song."

I stared in awe at the thing, something about it just made me feel so…reminiscent. I couldn't remember where I had seen it before, but I was positive I had seen it before. Losing almost all sense in the world around me, the locket put me in a trance, and all I could do was stare and stare. I needed to know where this came from, and why Tuxedo Mask had it. Have we met before?

"Hello, earth to Serena!" Rei waved her hands in front of my face and I blinked, slowly coming back to reality as she closed the locket.

I realized tears were falling from my eyes and I wiped them with my sleeve.

"Are…you okay?" she asked.

"I'm sorry…I need to be alone for a bit." I stood up and locked myself in the room, not even allowing Luna to follow me. Something about this locket just made me so solemn for some reason. Almost as if it reminded me of a time where life was better. Maybe like before my parents died. It made me wonder if maybe Tuxedo Mask knew my parents. But how could that be, those eyes…he couldn't have been more than four or five years older than me, I'm positive, so how would he have known my parents? No it had to be something else.

The rest of the day was just spent staring at my wall, thinking. I cried some too. Thinking about my parents was just a bit too much. I remember it like it was just yesterday. I was about 5 or six, and we were on our way to watch a baseball game, and we got into a car accident. I was the only survivor. With no relatives, I was sent to foster care after months of being in the hospital from severe injuries. I remember that a young boy came in, had to have been somewhere around ten years old, and he gave me a rose. He said he was there to see a sick relative, but he saw me and thought I needed it more. Ever since that day, roses were always my favorite flower. I never forgot that kid's kindness. But I also never forgot how much I missed my parents. The pain never really subsided; I just learned how to start hiding it behind all my makeup and hoodies.

Darien called me several times throughout the day but I ignored all of his messages. I wasn't sure exactly what to tell him. We hadn't even been together a month and some other man had kissed me. And I had yet to tell him what happened with my parents, I just didn't think he would understand.

My thoughts eventually came around to wondering what I should do about the locket, how could I give it back to someone I don't actually know? Its not like I had his phone number or address. He probably didn't deserve to have the locket anyways, considering he was so careless with it. I decided I would just keep it with me at all times, and if I ever randomly saw him again then I would question him about it, and find out why it seems so familiar.

The girls knocked on my door several times throughout the day but each time I turned them away, only coming out of my room to pee. Eventually I drifted off to sleep, where I was pulled into the same dream I had had before. I looked down at myself and saw a long white gown, pearls at my wrist, long black hair flying around me. I screamed as I fell into the hole in the ground, and reached out to the man in the battle armor, but again he was unable to catch me. I awoke in the middle of the night crying harder than I had all day.

Chapter 6

A couple weeks and a few fights later, only one other crystal had been found, and before we knew it, the Negaverse grabbed it. So now we have none and both the Negaverse and Tuxedo Mask have one. No progress had been made with Tuxedo Mask, as he kept flirting with me and saving my life when I got clumsy, yet he also had given us no information at all. It seemed like he knew something we didn't, and refused to share. And every time I tried to question him, I would get lost in those green eyes and he would get away, which is always why I had still yet to give his locket back. I started to day dream about being with the masked man, and I beat myself up about it because I couldn't be dreaming of another man when I was so happy with Darien. It just didn't make sense.

"What's got you so dazed?" Luna asked.

I shrugged, "I'm not sure what to do anymore."

"About what?"

"Darien and Tuxedo Mask. I guess part of me whishes they were the same person."

"You like them both?"

"I don't know, I'm in love with Darien, I am, but part of me sees something in Tuxedo Mask that I don't think the other girls see. Rei and Leita both think he's sexy, and I know Amy wouldn't deny it either, but I see something else there too. There's more to him that just his stunning looks."

"Yeah, only that he wants to steal the crystal and take over the world with it."

"But he doesn't, there's some other reason, I'm sure of it. Luna, you know, I've been thinking, that crystal, what if it could help me too, and not just the princess?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well I keep having this dream…and I think it means that the crystal can help me too." I thought about telling Luna that Darien was having a similar dream, but I couldn't bring myself to do it.

"A dream? Tell me about it."

I explained to Luna every detail of my dream and she nodded, "yes that does seem important. Maybe it's a premonition."

"You mean a warning that that's going to happen?"

"Maybe. Maybe it's a sign you should stay away from Tuxedo Mask."

"No way that couldn't be it."

"The crystal wasn't even in your dream though, right?"

"Technically, I just remember that while in the dream, that's what I was thinking about."

"Maybe its just your brain trying to wrap your head around what happening, I'm sure its probably nothing."

"But still, I get a feeling like there's more to this crystal than we know about. And I need to find it."

"Yes but we need to find it for the princess."

"I know but I mean, where do you even go about looking for a princess in hiding? She probably looks like any other person."

"All I've heard is that's she beautiful and the she always represents the moon."

"Da fug does that mean?"

"I'm not sure. Maybe one of these days we'll just run into her."

I flipped the page in my magazine and saw a poster ad for some perfume with a model named Mina something. She was gorgeous, long blond hair, pretty blue eyes, a figure one couldn't help but look twice at.

"Hey, maybe its her," I joked, showing Luna the picture.

Luna was serious though, and she studied the picture carefully, "its worth the shot."

"What are you talking about? You want to go meet this actress and what? Ask her if she's a princess in hiding?"

"Well it wouldn't hurt to meet her just to see."

"I think you just wanna meet the pretty lady," I teased, then got serious, "come on Luna, how do you expect us to find the real princess? What's the plan? We can't just meet every sing person in the world and hope our Spidey-senses go off when we see her."

"Spidey-sense?"

"Never mind. It just, it wouldn't work."

"I know, I know, we can't do that, its just that I have a really weird feeling about this one."

"So your Spidey-sense is tingling?" I laughed but she didn't get it.

"Oh never mind."

"Come on, we'll take a vacation and go see this girl, it could be fun."

"I guess I could use a vacation, but I don't have any money."

"Well how far is she anyways? Maybe we wouldn't need that much."

I shrugged and pulled up the internet on my phone, then googled her.

I gasped, "What a coincidence, it says there's a Victoria's secret fashion show right here in town tomorrow night and she's the featured model!"

"What are the odds? Well that's perfect! We'll all go to the fashion show and then afterwards we'll ask her for her autograph and then scope her out."

"I still think you just wanna meet the pretty lady but okay Luna, well do your thing." I laughed and got out my communicator to page the girls and tell them the plan.

Darien came over later that evening, since he was back to living with his parents, he mostly came to my dorm to hang out. It was pretty akward to be around his family, but he was looking for a job in his field, and he said that as soon as he got one, he would move into his own place. I didn't really mind either way, so long as he didn't move to like Japan or something.

"So are you still having those weird dreams?" I asked.

Darien shrugged, "not really, every once in a while."

"Has the princess said anything new?"

"Nope."

That was weird; it was unlike him to be short with me.

"Well, how is your search for the crystal going?"

"Oh I stopped looking for that."

"You did?"

"Yeah I mean it was just a dream, I don't know what it was thinking."

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"Oh yeah, I just…got into an argument with my mom and I'm a little upset."

"Well, do you want to talk about it?"

"No, not really."

"Okay, I'm sorry. Well if you need anything I'm here for you."

"Thanks, I appreciate that."

I paused, for the first time unsure what to say. I felt like he was hiding something.

"I love you," was all I could get out.

"I love you too," he smiled.

He hugged me then kissed me on the forehead, "so what're you girls doing tomorrow night?"

"I know it sounds weird, but Rei wanted to go see the Victoria's Secret fashion show, so we're going to go with her."

"Isn't that the fashion show where all the models are half naked?"

"Yeah…pretty much."

"Can I come too?"

I gave him a playful push, "no, its girls night. Sorry."

"Girls night eh? I wouldn't have pegged you for that kind."

"A lot has changed for me in the past two months. I used to be all doom and gloom…but now I feel like I have a real family, people that actually care for me you know?"

"I know I care about you a lot."

"I care about you too." I reached up on my toes and gave him a kiss, one that started out slow and meaningful, but then grew into something deeper. Darien pulled away for a second, then held my hand and led me to my bedroom. He could barely wait to shut the door; the second it was closed I was pushed up against it with his lips running up and down my neck and his hands grazing beneath my shirt. I pulled his off and jumped into his arms, trailing kisses across his face. He lied me down on the bed and pulled off my skirt, then bent down and kissed my stomach.

"You're so beautiful," he claimed.

I blushed, "you're not so bad lookin yourself.

He kissed my stomach again and smiled, "are you getting abs?"

"I may or may not have a really amazing personal trainer."

"Wow so you're like really serious about getting into shape huh?"

I nodded and jumped up then pushed him down behind me, wrapping myself around his waist. As the kissing continued and more clothes were removed, I decided I didn't really care that he was hiding something from me. We all had to have our secrets. I mean I was keeping the whole, I'm a Sailor Scout, thing from him so. It was okay, whatever it was, we would figure it out and we would be okay.

The next morning we four girls started our day off by training at the gym. As usual, Leita was our real pusher. We would pretty much just do whatever she said to do, and we were gaining some real muscle because of it.

"Great job guys; keep it up!" she coached, doing the exercise alongside us. Our breathing was getting heavy but we knew we had to keep up; she was our only chance to see some real results so we could defeat the Negaverse. So we pushed and we pushed until we were collapsing on the mats.

"Can we take a five please?" I begged.

"Okay five guys, get a drink," she said, continuing her exercise.

"You are one persistent woman," Amy said, panting heavily.

"That's the point, if you don't work, you don't see results."

"But you're already so fit," Rei growled.

"And now you will be too," Leita smiled.

"Hey, maybe we'll good enough now to be in the Victoria's Secret show too huh?" Rei joked.

"I don't know man, your fit, not anorexic," I teased, "but in all seriousness, should we have a plan tonight? How exactly are we supposed to talk to one of the models?"

"Find them after the show, say we're friends, have some flowers for her so we look legit. And if she's the true princess, I would hope that she would know," Luna said, the first time she'd spoken in hours.

"So the princess knows she's the princess?"

"I don't know for sure, but I hope so."

"Guess we'll find out."

After hitting the showers and changing clothes we ran to the groceries store and picked up some flowers, and then we went home to find something to wear for the show. We all decided to settle with black tie dresses so that we were fancy, but not weird. When we got there, the place was packed. I was surprised there were any seats left, let alone four together. Luna wrapped around my neck and hung on, hoping no one would bump into me. I rubbed her back to sooth her nerves as we found our seat and waited for the show to begin.

The models were all gorgeous, tight stomachs, thigh gaps, long hair, you name it. It wasn't long before they announced a new line.

"I haven't seen her yet, have you guys?"

The rest of the gang shook their heads.

The music started and an angel was revealed from behind the curtain. It was her. Mina. She had her long blonde hair half up half down with a clean white bow, the down part cascading over her wings. The wings where the purest white I'd ever seen, and she was wearing a long white gown with pearls at her wrist and neck. It was a sweetheart neckline that flowed from just under the bust out to about 4 feet behind her in a long train. It looked like both a wedding dress and a dress fit for a princess.

"Um…guys."

"That's her!" Leita exclaimed. Someone shushed her and Luna whispered to us.

"Anyone getting any vibes?"

We watched the woman closely, and I nodded, as did the other girls.

"Luna," I whispered, I think that's my dress!"

"You mean-"

"It looks just like the one from my dream!"

We gaped and watched as Mina stopped at the end of the catwalk, posed a few times, then turned around and started walking back her hair and body swayed as she walked back, the feathers on her wings blowing in the gentle breeze.

"Luna I think you were right, I think it is her."

"Yea, its gotta be," the girls agreed.

A few minutes later, a brunette model was on the catwalk when suddenly she stumbled. She leaned over like she was in pain and the audience gasped. A man appeared out of nowhere behind her and knocked her down. She growled and within seconds turned into a large, slobbering creature. The audience started screaming and running away, but the gang and I whipped out our wands (and compact) and transformed.

"You won't get away with this Nega-creep!" I yelled once ready to fight. The man behind the model/monster was a man I had never seen before but because of his appearance and the situation, I could just tell he was another villain from the Negaverse.

"Oh…it's the Sailor Scouts. How nice of you to join us. Well I'm Zoicite, and I won't go as easy on you as the others have."

"Well good thing we've been training!"

"Yeah, we could all kind your ass single-handedly!" Leita agreed.

"I'm sure," he looked at the monster, "well get on with it."

The monster roared and ran towards us. We dodged the blow, all of us throwing ourselves to the floor to get away from her.

"Remember guys, there's a model in there, we can't hurt her!" I reminded them.

"Right!" they synchronized.

Sailor Mercury froze the monster with her powers, Leita shocked the monster with hers, and Rei threw some flames out with hers, and the monster fell to the ground. We thought she was done for, and so we got closer, waiting for the monster to disappear and the woman to come back, but nothing happened. Until something did. Too quick for a good reaction, the monster jumped at us. She lunged, going for one big swipe, but her arms were suddenly engulfed in a glowing gold chain, the links shaped like hearts. The chain was pulled, the creature pulled with it, and we looked up to see the culprit. A woman with long blonde hair, half tied back with an orange bow, and a suit just like ours, only her skirt and bow orange, stood before us. It was her, I could tell. She looked exactly like what I could picture a moon princess looking. A white cat stood next to her feet, something that I could only assume what her 'representation of the moon'.

Before I got the chance to say anything, a rose came down from the sky and struck the ground between us. I turned to find Tuxedo Mask jumping down from the balcony of the theater.

He nodded to me just as the creature escaped the chains. I threw my tiara and it knocked him back, but then he just went after Tuxedo Mask. The man took a black wand-looking thing out of his jacket pocket. It looked like something a magician would carry, but his grew to an incredibly long length, and it stabbed the monster's mid-section. The monster growled in pain.

"Be careful!" I warned.

"I told you," he murmured.

"I don't care who gets in my way."

Upset that he hurt her, the monster lashed out, about to attack Tuxedo Mask. Hi gasped but he threw a group of roses and the stuck into the monster.

"No!" I screamed.

"Serena, do it now!" the woman in the orange skirt yelled.

I didn't know how she knew, but I knew what she was talking about, and I pulled my wand out and started to spin it, "Moon Healing Activation!"

The monster started to shriek and went back down to human-size, then faded away leaving a much damaged model and a crystal behind. Everyone jumped for the crystal, but it was Zoisite that got to it first. I jumped at him but without even touching me, he pushed me back. He raised his hand and with a flick of his wrist I was up against the wall.

"Sailor Moon!" my group called after me.

Tuxedo Mask looked at me and I saw a sadness in his eyes that then flashed into anger; he looked back at Zoisite and attacked him. They fought for a bit, and the girls fought for a bit, but once I got up and was about to use my wand again, he floated up into the air.

"Well this has been fun Scouts but I think I'd better get this crystal to Queen Beryl."

I jumped up into the air and tried to grab it from him. I almost had it, but he raised his hand and used his other hand to push me down. I fell and Tuxedo Mask caught me, and then he was gone. I growled, upset that I let another one get away. That was then three crystals that were not in my possession. If we were ever going to get the Silver Millennium crystal, I was going to have to work even harder.

"Thanks…Tuxedo Mask," I stammered. He had saved me again.

He frowned and set me on my feet then left without saying goodbye. He must've been upset that he didn't get the crystal.

"What was his problem?" the girl in orange asked. The only difference in her Sailor Suit was that she had a red heart-shaped chain around her waist.

We all came back down to earth and watched the woman. She de-transformed in front of us, back to wearing a long white gown and Victoria's Secret wings.

We gaped, "so it is you!"

"Hi everyone! Its so good to meet you! I'm Sailor Venus, but you can call me Mina!"

I looked to Luna and she trotted over to the white cat and sniffed him.

"I can't believe its really you!" she exclaimed.

"He-llo kitty cat," the white cat said, "long time, no see."

"You can talk too?"

Mina winked, "he never shuts up!"

The cat sat and raised a paw, "hello, I am Artemis."

We waved at him, only momentarily shocked that he could speak, but if Luna could speak, why couldn't another cat? I took another look at him and realized he had the same crescent moon shaped mark on his forehead too.

The rest of us de-transformed back into our fancy theatre clothes and encircled Mina.

"Are you the princess? How did you know you were a sailor scout? How did you find Artemis?" we all asked.

"Slow down," she laughed. Her laugh was graceful and beautiful, "its kind of a long story…but I'm not the princess, I'm sorry. I've been searching for her too."

"Oh, you're not the princess? We thought you were."

"Just her friend is all," she smiled and put two fingers up to her cheeks.

"Mina, you're like a famous model though, AND you're a Sailor Scout?"

She sighed, "oh yeah, it's a hectic schedule. But now that I've found you guys, maybe it won't be so bad!"

"You found us?"

She nodded, "I heard about you guys on the news and I came to find you! Finally our group is all together!"

She put her arms out for a group hug and we scooted closer, wrapping our arms around her.

"We have a new member to the team!" Leita exclaimed.

"This is awesome," I agreed, "but we still have to find the princess. I must say, you're so gorgeous Mina, I'm kinda disappointed you're not her."

She blushed, "well thank you, but I do have some good ideas on where to start looking."

"Great!" Luna said, "Let's go home and get some sleep, then tomorrow we can have a meeting and get it all figured out."

"Yes, let's have another sleepover at our place," I suggested.

"Let me change clothes real quick," Mina smiled. A few minutes later she came out of the changing room in sweat pants and a hoodie and put up a peace sign.

"Okay I'm ready!" she laughed. I could already tell she had a big, bubbly personality, and I could tell she was going to be an interesting friend. She laughed and hugged us again.

Back at the dorm, we were all in our PJs and we made popcorn and put a whole bunch of pillows and blankets on the floor, ready for a fun night of just hanging out and getting to know each other.

"This is fun!" Mina exclaimed, "I haven't been to a sleepover since middle school!"

"Well now you have us!" Amy told her, "you're welcome anytime."

"Aw, thanks guys."

"So where do you live?" I asked.

"Yeah aren't you supposed to be doing like a big photoshoot next week?"

She nodded, "I was supposed to go to Hawaii, but since I found you guys, I'm gunna move here!"

We gasped, "You mean you're going to give up modeling so you can join our group?"

"Well, I won't give up modeling, I'll just take what jobs I can find around here! But I'm for sure staying!"

We cheered and she hugged us again. She was a big hugger apparently.

"So tell us, how did you find out you were Sailor Venus?"

"Well, it was about a year ago, I was playing volleyball with some modeling friends and Artimus found me. I guess he could immediately tell there was something about me cause he said with me a few weeks before I was awakened.

"What happened? Did the Negaverse attack?"

She nodded, "I'm actually originally from around here so I was visiting my parents when they attacked.

Amy gasped, "wow, I can't believe I'm friends with a Victoria Secret model!"

"Yeah, my old boyfriend would never believe it!" Leita gaped.

I rolled my eyes, "its cool sure, but don't you ever get tired of the press bothering you?"

"Sometimes, but I don't really get hounded like actors do. All people care about as far as models go is whether we eat or not. But not to worry, I can put away an entire cake and still have room for more."

"Oh gosh, me too," I laughed, high-fiving her.

"Well, we should probably get some sleep, we can talk more in the morning," she suggested.

We agreed and started a movie to fall asleep to.

Chapter 7

Darien and I were taking a walk in the park at the end of summer, just strolling and relaxing. I was disappointed that I was about to have to go back to school, and Darien was sad that he wasn't going to get to see me as much because of it.

"Don't worry, maybe what we can do is spend every weekend together," I reassured him.

"Or maybe we could move in together."

I turned to him, "you're not serious, are you?"

He shrugged, "I mean why not? I love you; you love me, what's the problem?"

"Nothings the problem, its just that we're still so new. Would that really be the right move?"

"Serena, I've never felt closer to anyone in my entire life, I feel like I've known you a lot longer that four months. I feel like I've known you since…a previous life or something."

"I feel the same way. But its just that…well I just don't think I'm ready for that yet. Its not that I don't love you, its just that I think we need to get to know each other a bit more first."

"But don't I know everything about you?"

"No…no I don't think you do. And to be honest I think I don't know everything about you either."

We both thought for a moment. I did love him, and everything in me wanted to move in with him. But with such a big secret on the line I couldn't risk it, not yet. I needed to figure out the whole princess thing first.

Our entire summer had consisted of nothing but training, searching for the princess, and fighting with the Negaverse. I was constantly trying to hide it from Darien but I was terrified. The last crystal had been found. The Negaverse had three and Tuxedo Mask had four. Which meant that the Sailor Scouts had none. How we managed to let all seven of them get away was beside me. I didn't know what it meant now. Either way, one of them was going to fight the other for the rest of the crystals. And considering how many minions Queen Beryl had, I would say that Tuxedo Mask didn't stand a chance by himself. We had found out eventually that there were a total of four 'kings' under Queen Beryl's Authority, Kunzite, Nephrite, Zoisite, and Jadeite. These were the guys that kept stealing the crystals and attacking the city.

"Serena."

I shook the thoughts away, trying not to panic.

"Are you okay?"

"Um, yeah, just tired, I didn't sleep well last night."

"Oh, I'm sorry; do you want to take a nap?"

"No its okay, so how's your new job going so far?"

"Oh its great, I can't wait till I've saved up enough to move out, then you can…come over…whenever!"

"Yeah, that'll be nice."

I almost started to get lost in thought again but Darien put his finger under my chin and tilted it up, "hey, why don't you go out with the girls tomorrow? And I don't mean to the gym, you guys are getting way too serious about that, go shopping, get some ice cream, see a movie, have a girls' night."

I thought about it and he was right, we had been so worried about the Negaverse that we were running ourselves ragged. Whenever we weren't fighting (and Amy whenever she wasn't in class) we were at the gym. I mean, don't get me wrong, we had all gained some serious muscle, I'd never looked better, but that doesn't mean that we didn't need a break from the whole super hero thing. We'd be fine with one day off, I'm sure.

"Yeah, you're right; we do need a day to just do fun stuff."

He nodded and kissed me on the nose, "just be safe, okay?"

"You know it. Plus, now if any guy tries to steal Mina's purse, we can just gang up on him and he'd be screaming for his life in seconds."

Darien laughed, "Oh I have no doubt." He pushed me a little to left so that we veered off the path, and started walking into the woods instead.

"Where are we going?" I asked. It was getting late and as the sun went down it was getting harder to see. I didn't have the cat-eye vision that Luna did.

"Oh its okay, I've got a good sense of direction."

I shrugged. I was never really one to get scared, but it was even more-so the case after I started fighting monsters…and winning. There wasn't anything that scared me anymore. Well, I guess there was only one thing that scared me.

Once Darien felt we had gotten far enough away, he started kissing me.

"Oh so this is where you were getting to?" I teased between kisses.

"Sorry, I just couldn't take it anymore. I need you."

I kissed him back, going from lips to neck and back. He groaned slightly and I giggled.

"Don't be so loud! We're outside, someone may hear."

"Maybe I want them to!"

"Maybe I don't want to get banned from the park."

He stopped, "are you uncomfortable?"

I shook my head, "no way, this would be my first time…outside. Its exciting! But we should be careful."

"Fair enough." He began kissing me again, this time more deeply, with hands running up and down my body. I was wearing a short skirt that day, and Darien took advantage of that by removing nothing but my undergarment. After the little adventure was over, we were covered in sweat with no shower around.

"Maybe we should get home," he laughed.

"Yeah, let's go to my place so your parents don't see my sex-hair."

He nodded, "good idea."

When we got home all four girls and two cats were playing a card game, and they all glared at us when we walked in.

I cleared my throat, "well, um, we're just gunna…um…we'll be back."

I led him to the bathroom, hearing fits of giggles behind us. They knew what we'd been up to. It was awkward for a while after Darien had left, as the girls were asking me questions about where we had been and what we had been doing. They knew the answers of course; they just wanted to see me squirm.

Trying to change the subject, I told them I had an idea.

"What's up?" they asked.

"I was thinking we should take a day off from out double lives tomorrow and just go do something fun, go shopping or something."

"Oh that sounds great! I know some amazing boutiques not too far from here," Mina exclaimed.

"Yeah but shouldn't we be training?" Leita asked.

"Or studying?" Amy suggested.

"No way to both. We need a day to just relax and hang out and enjoy each other's' company, you know?"

"Sure, yeah, why not?" they agreed.

"Maybe we could get some ice cream and take a walk in the park," Rei suggested.

I nodded, "yeah let's do that!"

"Then its settled."

"Guys, are you sure that's a good idea? There could be an attack at any minute!" Luna and Artemis worried.

"If there's an attack, then we'll transform and we'll be ready like we always are, but otherwise, we're going to do something fun for once."

Luna rolled her eyes, "fine."

It was Sunday, so luckily Amy didn't have any classes, and the girls and I spent all day hanging out together. Around sunset we went to get our ice cream at a shop right next to the park, and then ate it on one of the benches overlooking a large fountain with a big horse statue in the middle. It was weird to think that five people who were all very different from each other could be such good friends. Growing up I always thought it was all about being in the same clique, but as an adult, everything was different. You could be friends with anyone and/or everyone and no one would bat an eye. Mina and I looked very different from each other, and we had completely opposite personalities, but somehow we were really good together. We all just fit together like sisters rather than friends.

After we had finished our ice creams I looked up and saw a familiar figure in the distance. It was Darien.

"What's he doing here?" I asked. The others looked up and wondered too.

I shouted for him but he neither saw nor heard me. I hadn't told him were we were so I knew he didn't already know we were at the park.

"Hang on guys, I'm gunna go say hi."

They nodded and turned to each other to talk while I ran to catch up to him. Once I did I jumped and wrapped my arms around his waist. He groaned as if I hurt him, and I took a step back.

"Oh Serena, hey babe, what…are you doing here?"

"I was with the girls, and I saw you walk by, what are you doing here?"

"Oh, just…running some errands for my boss…but I gotta get back, there's a meeting so…you go ahead and have fun with the girls, okay?"

"Oh…okay I guess."

Something just wasn't right. I could see the pain in his eyes. There was something he wasn't telling me. I knew it was wrong but I had to know if he was telling the truth or not, so I waited till I was out of his sight, and then I followed him. He walked all the way to an abandoned building in a space of land behind the park.

"What is he doing here?" I asked myself. _Is he meeting some girl?_

He got to the house and knocked viciously on the door. The door creaked open and there stood Kunzite, with all is platinum hair and glory. _Darien knows Kunzite? Why? What? What is happening right now?_

I couldn't make sense of any of it! The second I saw him, I became furious. And when Kunzite let him come inside the house, I lost it. I barged in and demanded answers.

"Serena what are you-" Darien began to ask.

"What the hell is going on here?"

Kunzite eyed me cautiously. I could tell he was trying to figure out who I was. Before he could guess, I stood in front of Darien, "what do you want with him?"

"He has something I want," said Jadeite, appearing from out of nowhere.

I growled and furrowed my brows. What did Darien have that they wanted?

Darien took a step forward and pushed me behind him, "its okay Serena, I got this."

He stood protectively in front of me and stared down Kunzite and Jadeite, "fine, you can have them, just please, don't hurt her."

Kunzite stared at me with intense, icy eyes, "okay, I will not hurt her. You have my word."

The ground started shaking then and I looked out the foggy window, there were ice walls growing and surrounding the house. I shook and knew that if I didn't do something soon, if I didn't transform, we'd be toast. So even though Darien was in front of me, I decided now was as good a time as any to tell him who I really was.

I pulled out my compact and shouted my transformation mantra. Darien gaped; his eyes went wide and his skin pail, "Serena?"

I took my tiara off and threw it at the two Nega-creeps. It cut Jadeite's face then spun back to me.

"Sailor Moon?" Darien gasped.

"I'm sorry Darien, please don't be mad."

Jadeite screamed, "how dare you!"

"Oh has your little Sailor Scout come to save you, Tuxedo Mask?" Kunzite laughed.

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

He pointed to Darien, who was then pulling a rose out of his jacket pocket, "I'm Tuxedo Mask."

"You are?"

He nodded a gentle smile of his face as he threw the rose and it landed on the floor of the abandoned house, splitting the wood.

 _Oh my god he is Tuxedo Mask, I can't believe it!_

Darien, MY Darien, then spun around and transformed into my masked man, his cape floating behind him.

"This explains so much."

"Yes yes, I'm sure you have a lot to talk about, but don't worry, well get rid of you before you have the chance to."

"I said I would give you the crystals, you said you wouldn't hurt her, here!" Tuxedo Mask, Darien, pulled four gems out of his pocket and set them on the floor in-between us.

Kunzite held out his hand with the other three gems in his palm. Suddenly Darien's four gems floated into the air and mixed in with Kunzites, then disappeared altogether, "yes, yes I did say that _I_ wouldn't hurt her, didn't I?"

Darien and I looked around, fearing the worst, and before we knew it, there was a sharp, spear-like form of ice flying through the air towards me. I froze, unable to process it till it was too late, but Darien was a bit quicker than me, and he jumped in front of me to save my life. The ice impaled him and blood started gushing from his stomach.

"Darien!" I screamed. I caught him as he fell, and laid his head in my lap. I could hear noises coming from outside that sounded like someone was trying very hard to get through the ice wall, but I couldn't focus on it. I looked at my beloved, then back to Jadeite and Kunzite, who were giggling at their victory.

I was so frustrated, and hurt, and…the only thing I truly feared most in the world had happened. Tears streamed down my face and I screamed. It was the only thing I felt like I could do when I was in so much distress. The pounding outside grew to a crashing noise just as I felt myself pass out from exhaustion. It only lasted a few seconds though, and when I awoke, I looked down and noticed I was wearing a brilliant white dress, and Tuxedo Mask was wearing a suit of armor, the exact same one I had seen in my dream. I heard gasps coming from behind me and knew the girls were here to help, and they were seeing exactly what I was seeing. Although after a few seconds my eyes went hazy and I could feel my forehead getting hot. Out of nowhere a lifetime of memories flooded my mind.

I had originally been born on the Moon; there was a whole kingdom and everything. As princess, all I was allowed to do was roam the castle, I was never supposed to go outside the castle grounds, and I had the Sailor Scouts to protect me and guide me through everything. I loved them all dearly, but I was longing for something else. Every day and every night I stared at Earth and wondered what it was like there. One day I snuck away and went to Earth, where I met Prince Darien, who was soon to be King of the Earth, and I fell head over heels in love. We snuck around for a while before one day, a woman named Beryl had found out, and she…well long story short she was pissed. She was a witch that got her powers from some higher being, and used her powers to turn so many people against us. The day of the attack, I had gone to see him, and I gave him my star locket so that he would always remember me when we couldn't be together. Just as things started to get good, we got word that the castle was under attack, and Darien and I were separated. I ran around looking for him, and finally when I found him, I rushed to get to him, we reached out for each other, but just before our fingertips touched, the ground beneath us started to fall apart.

Tears streamed down my face as the memories of my past life overtook my current life's memories. Darien was my Prince, my love, my future King. I loved him with all my heart.

"All this time-" I heard Amy muse.

"Serena was the princess," Mina finished.

As I got my memories back, so did they; and they remembered their past lives as both my guardians, and my friends. They had known about my secret rendezvous, but they stood by my side, they couldn't stand in the way of true love.

"And Darien, Darien was the Prince!" Rei cried.

"Poor Serena," Luna cried.

Something happened then that none of us had expected. All seven crystals appeared before me, and they spun around, then creating one large, brilliantly clear crystal. It hovered for a moment, and I got out my healing wand. The crystal sat on the crescent part of my wand and bonded with it.

"Woah," the group said.

With all my new memories intact, I then knew exactly how to handle the Silver Millennium Crystal. I raised my wand up in the air, and without even saying anything, Kunzite and Jadeite were blasted back.

I collapsed onto Darien's bleeding chest. Using the crystal like that was exhausting, and I didn't have a lot in me to begin with. I cried and cried until I was interrupted by the Four Kings.

"You will pay for this…Princess."

Suddenly Darien was floating in the air in a dark black bubble.

"No!" I screamed so furiously that the crescent moon on my forehead started glowing and everyone in the room was blasted with a beam of light. I felt bad as I didn't mean for my friends to get hurt, but it just kinda happened. Darien fell out of the air and I caught him. It was a struggle, but the girls were able to get up and help me. We busted out of there before the Negaverse could attack again, and we took Darien straight to the hospital. He was in very bad condition, and I feared the worst.

Darien was in a coma for weeks, but I visited him in the hospital every day, only not there during class or during attacks. Yes the Negaverse was still attacking. They wanted the crystal back, they wanted revenge, they wanted Darien. They had even gone as far as to attack the hospital, but I was there and we protected him. Even when I was in class, I always made sure one of the girls was watching him.

He finally woke up about a month after it happened, and when he did I was so relieved. I had been right by his side and he woke up and the first thing he asked was if I was okay.

I laughed and brushed his hair back, "yes, yes I'm fine, Love, I've been so worried about you!"

"How long have I been out for?"

"Oh Darien, you've been in a coma for almost a month!"

"Really?" he asked. He sat up in his hospital bed and one of the nurses came in, noticed that he was awake, and left to go get the doctor.

"Yeah, do you remember what happened?"

He thought for a moment, "You know, for a moment I thought it was all a dream, but it wasn't, was it? You're Princess Serena, and Sailor Moon, and I'm Prince Darien of Earth."

"Yes! Oh Darien how I've missed you!"

I hugged the love of my life gently and he hugged me back enthusiastically, "I can't believe we found each other again. I love you so much Serena."

"I love you too Darien!"

"This all seems so surreal."

"I know, five months ago we were all just college kids trying to make it and now look at us!"

He nodded as the doctor came in and started going through all the motions.

"Okay, I'll just go grab a bite to eat while you're busy and I'll be right back, okay?"

"I love you."

"I love you too."

Chapter 8

A day after Darien was released from the hospital we were resting on the couch at my place and we decided to talk about everything that had happened.

"So…you've been Tuxedo Mask this whole time," I began.

He nodded, "and you were Sailor Moon the whole time."

I repeated his gesture, "I didn't want to tell you because I hadn't thought it was a big deal, but I thought Tuxedo Mask was pretty sexy and I kind of had a crush on him. Now I think a part of me must have known the whole time."

"You had a crush on what you thought was another man while you were dating me?"

I raised my eyebrow, remembering how flirty Tuxedo Mask was with me.

"Okay, okay, "he confessed, "I had a crush on Sailor Moon too. It all seemed to makes sense when I found out the truth."

"But what's weird is the whole past life thing. I can't believe I was a princess!"

"And I was a prince…how strange to think."

"I wish we could go back to that time, before the attack. Everything in that time seemed to be simpler."

"That's because the world wasn't as advanced as it is now."

I shrugged, "regardless, I still wish we could. I miss having parents and a castle to roam and a garden to grow."

"I'm sorry Serena."

"Its okay, I'm still so much happier now that we've found each other and now that I have the girls."

Darien hugged me tightly and I dug my chin into his shoulder, I felt like crying from both sadness and happiness, but I held it together and just sighed instead. Darien's warm aura and comforting squeeze helped me gain my strength and I sat up and smiled.

"I love you."

"I love you too," he replied.

"Hey lets go down to the library, I have a bunch I need to catch up on since I've been in the hospital so much."

"Of course, you know, I don't think I ever thanked you for all that you did for me, my mom said you were there every second you weren't in class."

"Yeah, I was so worried about you."

"Well thank you, I think having you by my side really helped me get better."

"At first, the doctors said you had a very slim chance of making it, they honestly thought we should pull the plug, but we refused. I held your hand all night, talking to you and joking, the doctors thought it was a miracle when you woke up."

"It was because of you, Serena, I could hear you. I don't really remember what all you said but I remember being able to hear you, and it giving me the strength to stay earthbound and to come back to you. I wasn't ready to die; we still have our whole lives ahead of us."

"We sure do," I smiled.

We headed to the library after that, ready to get some work done. Darien didn't have anything obviously, but he helped a lot with mine. As we were leaving I accidentally bumped into a woman, causing her to drop her books.

"Oh am sorry about that," I said, beginning to pick up her books. I thought about how at one time, I would've told her to watch where she was going, or something like that. But now I was more polite and respectful. But then that was just what the woman said.

"Watch where you're going," she snorted.

"Hey it was just an accident," Darien stammered, taking a step forward defensively.

The woman looked away from me, and looked up at Darien, her brown eyes beaming.

"Oh, my bad, I should've been more careful," she smiled and then wrapped her arm around Darien, "I'm Anna."

"Uh…Darien," he replied, pulling away from her.

"Is there a problem here?" a man asked, approaching us from behind. We turned to face him; he was a tall man with sandy hair and golden eyes to match.

"Not at all…brother," Anna giggled. The man looked at me and smiled.

"I was just about to tell your…sister...here that I'm Darien's girlfriend, Serena."

"Girlfriend? Hm, not much of one I suspect," she huffed.

"I'm Al," the man said, stretching his hand out. Darien and I shook it cautiously.

"So uh…Serena… we're actually new here, we could use some help getting to know the school if you'd be willing," Al wondered.

"Yeah Darien, you think you could give us the grand tour?" Anna asked.

I took Darien's hand in mine and started to walk away, "maybe some other time."

"Hold up. You pushed me and made me drop all my books, I think you two owe me one," Anna growled.

"One, I didn't push you and two-"

Darien held his hand up to stop me, "we'd love to, we don't have anything going on right now if you'd like."

I looked up at me man in astonishment. Why was he treating her so nicely after she just flirted with him?

"Oh great!" she laughed, clapping her hands together, her light brown hair swinging over her shoulder. She grabbed Darien's other hand and started pulling him towards the exit. I frowned but allowed her to continue for Darien's sake. Al followed us, staying uncomfortably close to me.

Darien showed the two around, and the longer we were with them, the more friendly Darien became with Anna, and the same with Al and I. he was nice, and a little on the cute side, but he was still the brother of the woman trying to flirt with my man, so they were both my enemies.

At the end of our tour, Anna gave both Darien and I a hug and thanked us, then walked into the same dorm building that I lived in. I breathed a sigh of relief after they were gone, finally stress free.

"Why were you so nice to her?" I asked, admittedly jealous.

"I'm sorry; I was just trying to be friendly. They're new here; they probably don't have any friends yet. Besides, did you not see how Al was looking at you?"

"What are you talking about?"

"He was making googly-eyes the whole time."

"No way."

"Yeah. But its okay, but he knows you're mine, and I trust you."

I nodded, "good. Because there is no one on this Earth I would rather be with."

"I was going to say the same," he smiled and gave me a quick kiss before returning me to my dorm. I asked him to come in and he complied, joining me in the bedroom. I swapped my jeans and band-tee for a black slip and climbed in bed, patting the spot next to me. Darien removed everything except his boxers and climbed in next to me, wrapping his arm around my waist.

"Guess I'm staying the night then?"

I turned to him and placed my hand on his chest, "will you?"

"Of course."

"I don't think I could sleep without you at this point. I would miss you too much."

"After all that time with me at the hospital, I bet you got kinda used to having me around huh?"

"Yeah, I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize for that. I love being with you. I will hold you until you fall asleep every night if it means you get some good sleep."

I snuggled closer to him and closed my eyes, more content and happy than I had been in a long time. I had friends, a soul mate, there were-in the moment- no monster attacks, and had more confidence than I ever had.

My communicator buzzed and I groaned. Guess I spoke too soon on the whole no monster attacks.

"What's up?" I asked.

"Everyone I need your help!" Sailor Venus screamed, "there's been an attack in the park, but you'll never guess, it's not just one of the four kings, but ALL of them."

"On my way!" the rest of us chimed.

Darien and I didn't bother putting on clothes; we just immediately transformed into Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask and jumped out the window. It was still a bit weird to think that there was ever a time that I didn't know that Darien and Tuxedo Mask was the same person, but I didn't stop to think about that as we hustled to the park.

Venus was struggling to make it with four people on her, and she looked badly injured. Without hesitation I attacked, giving it everything I had, they were blown back for a second, but then they hit me with their attacks and it was difficult to hold myself up. It was me against the four of them and I struggled to even stand under the pressure of the attack. Quickly I gave in to the pressure I was knocked off my feet.

"Sailor Moon!" the scouts shouted. Amy held my hand to make sure I was okay, and the others started to fight back. Everyone had their attacks at full blast and after some time Beryl appeared in the sky above us. Suddenly we were all transported to where we learned was the Negaverse. It was dark, and it was cold; it felt like we were in the middle of a big rock in space but with gravity.

I stood up and looked around, "where are we?"

"What does it look like, princess?" Beryl asked.

Up in the sky was a glowing orb with two holes that resembled eyes. it was purple and black, and there was lightning all around. The lightning flashed down around Beryl as she raised her arm to the sky. She held in her hand a rod with a purple crystal ball attacked to it, and it pulsed with light in time with the lightning. It was cool, but very threatening looking.

I lowered my head and glared at the woman who dared call herself queen, "your rein of terror ends tonight Beryl."

"Yes, this ends now!" Tuxedo Mask agreed.

"This has gone on for too long, and I'm tired of it. Now that Tuxedo Mask is back to full health I won't stop until you've been defeated!"

Darien nodded at me and I nodded back, we knew what we had to do.

"Hand over the silver crystal now or be terminated," Beryl warned.

"I'm not so easily persuaded, you're going to have to try harder than that," I replied.

"Our great ruler needs that crystal; if you do not give it to me I will just have to take it from you."

"I'd like to see you try!"

Beryl raised her orb and a currant of darkness grew from it, making its way towards me at lightning speed. I used my own quick reflexes to raise my wand and fight back. Light met dark and pushed each other back and forth. She was much stronger than the others and I was overpowered. I landed on my butt a few feet from where I had been standing and the girls gasped as Queen Beryl laughed.

"Are you done yet?" she asked.

"Not even close," I replied, getting back up on my feet. I looked back at my girls and took Rei's hand. She then took Leita's, who took Mina's, who took Amy's, who took my other hand. Together we called upon our planets, our homes, and brought down all the power we could from them. We aimed that power at Beryl and she screamed, getting knocked back. Beryl cried out, tears falling from her face. She was badly hurt, her orb broken. It looked like we were finally going to win, when she looked up to the sky and asked for help from her so called 'great ruler'. Thunder rolled around us and Beryl closed her eyes. Her chest stopped moving and suddenly the ground beneath her gave way and she fell in. We watched in astonishment, thinking it was finally over. However, after a minute or so she rose from the ground, her purple hair floating all around her, her skin turned a mint blue. Her dress had grown and come to life like an octopus, with legs that reached out to grab us, her newly sharpened teeth looking ready for a bite.

"Beryl…what happened to you?" Tuxedo Masked asked while dodging her.

"I have been given immense power from the great ruler in order to defeat you! I now have the power to turn this whole world into darkness and take over!"

I gasped and took a step back. The fight had only just begun. In my shock, I missed one of her new attachments coming towards me, and a tentacle wrapped around me, removing the breath from my lungs and pulling me towards the evil woman. Tuxedo Mask screamed and threw his signature rose. It landed right on the tentacle and pierced it all the way through. Beryl let go of me, screaming in pain, and then tried for the other scouts. They were able to dodge her, using their attacks to defend themselves.

Beryl was held off, but not much more than that. I joined in and tried a few attacks myself, as did Tuxedo Mask, with no such luck Beryl even went so far as to blast me back, not even using her orb this time around. Tuxedo Mask jumped over to me and held my head up.

"Are you okay?" he asked as I tried to regain my strength.

The girls stood in front of me protectively.

"If you want to get to her you're going to have to go through me!" Sailor Jupiter announced.

"And me. We will do anything to protect the princess!" Venus warned.

"We will fight till our last breath to make sure that she is safe and that the silver crystal does not get in the wrong hands!" Mars vowed.

"Friends are a precious thing, and we will work together help the ones we love!" Mercury growled.

"You think you can beat me? I will get that silver crystal if it is the last thing I do!"

"Mercury bubble spray!" Amy attacked, disorienting Beryl if even for a moment, and the others took that opportunity to attack as well. They were defending both me and the crystal, but it almost made me teary-eyed to know just how much my friends cared for me, that they would risk their lives to save me.

I stood up, scratched to hell and bleeding, but feeling stronger than ever before. Tuxedo Mask got a look on his face as if to ask me what I was thinking, and before I could answer him, I called upon the moon and the silver crystal asking for help, asking for strength, asking for power. I could feel said power surging through my body and I knew what I had to do in order to finish the job.

Raising my arms, I screamed, "Moon Crystal Power!"

"Serena no! Don't use the crystal's full power!" Luna warned, "you could die!"

I walked forward, going ahead of my friends and getting closer to the evil queen.

A light shot out from the crystal, a ring engulfing me and growing around my friends. I looked down and realized my sailor suit had transformed into a glowing white dress.

"Serena is the princess once more!" artimus noted.

"Sailor Moon no!" Tuxedo Mask screamed. The others were scared too, I looked back and I could see it on their faces.

"Don't worry guys, I got this," I smiled.

Getting back to Beryl, I called out once more, pleading for the ability to defeat the enemy. Her power collided with, mine and we fought at just about equal strength, neither one of us being able to overpower the other. However doing so was entirely exhausting, and I could barely keep it together. The girls and Darien saw that I was struggling, and found a way to help. They held hands and aligned behind me, and Tuxedo Mask stood behind me with his hand on my shoulder.

"Please, Sailor Scouts, Tuxedo Mask, lend me your strength so that I can rid the world of this evil!"

"Right!" I heard the girls yell.

"Princess Serena," Darien put his hand on top of mine and I glanced back. He was no longer wearing his Tuxedo and instead was wearing his suit of armor fit for a king, cape and all. He smiled down at me and I could feel his warmth engulfing me, "I believe in you, I love you, you can do this."

I nodded, he was right.

"Mars Star Power! Venus Star Power! Jupitar Star Power! Mercury Star Power!" The scouts shouted.

"Sailor Star Power!" they synchronized.

I was flooded with such power I almost couldn't handle it. I was pushed back like a frail girl shooting a rifle, and the power grew so large that it took over Beryl's darkness and within seconds her body burst into flames and was turned to ash. The purple clouds above exposed a gash just above its eyes, and it too burst into flames. The rock we stood on began to fall apart and I let go of the crystal just before we went with it. I collapsed to the ground, exhausted from using the full power of the silver crystal, and was out like a light.

I don't know how long I was out for; I just knew that when I felt warmth on my lips it meant that my prince was there, as he always was. I awoke to his lips on mine, and his arms around my limp body. I began to kiss him back and he pulled back with a big grin on his face.

"Oh Serena, I'm so glad you're okay!"

I looked around, "I am. Is everyone else okay?"

"Don't scare us like that!" Sailor Mars yelled. She jumped over to me and hugged me tightly. The other girls chimed in too and gave me a big group hug.

"We love you Sailor Moon!" they sang. I laughed and returned my friends' hug.

"I love you guys too! Now let's go home, huh?"

"Yeah," they nodded, all smiles.

Once home we all went to hang out at Ami and I's dorm to celebrate, but we were really too tired to actually party or really celebrate, so our version of celebrating was to sit on and around the couch, talking and watching movies. We had popcorn and ice cream and giggles and it was surprisingly one of the best nights of my life.

Just before we all crashed, I made sure to remind everyone just how much I appreciated them and cared for them.

"Aw, Serena we love you too! Don't ever hesitate to let us know if you need anything!" Mina smiled.

"Yeah, I mean, you are pretty thick headed, but I guess I can forgive you," Rei laughed. I nudged her and she almost knocked me over in return.

"Well I'm getting pretty exhausted, its been a long day. How about tomorrow we all go out or something to celebrate for real?"

"Yeah, sounds like fun!" Everyone nodded except for Amy.

"Nothing illegal though right? Aside from the law, I also need to be clear-headed; I've got a big test to study for."

Every lowered their heads, "typical Amy."

She grinned nervously and waved her hands, "okay, okay, I'll do whatever you want to do!"

We laughed, "that-a-girl."

I waved goodnight and led Darien to my room. We undressed just as the sun began to rise. Our fight had taken a good portion of the night, and the movie celebration afterward had taken up the remaining time. I was worried about not being able to sleep with the sun coming up. But with Darien's arms wrapped around me and the exhaustion from the fight I was actually able to sleep within minutes of lying down.

Chapter 9

Two weeks after our big fight with Beryl, Darien and I were watching tv, flipping through the channels. When we crossed the news, Darien paused to see what they had to say. I groaned, but he insisted.

"Sometimes its good to know what's going on in the world."

"Sure," I said sarcastically.

I should have listened to him though because what we saw was a bit shocking. The reporter basically was saying that in the past couple week's dozens of people had been hospitalized with some sort of illness that drained all of the energy from each person. One doctor had been interviewed saying that he'd never seen anything like it, and that his patients just wouldn't wake up. Almost like a coma, but not quite.

"That sounds suspicious," Luna warned.

I looked over at my little black cat and frowned, "you think the Negaverse is back?"

"Not necessarily, I just think something seems fishy about that."

"Well we could go check it out," Darien suggested.

"No no, I think what we should do is just keep an eye around town, see if we notice anything different."

Darien and I looked at each other and shrugged, "okay."

"How about we start at the lake?" I thought.

"Good idea," Darien agreed.

"Okay you guys go do that, I'm going to go tell the others," Luna announced.

Darien and I seized the opportunity to get away, and we headed to the lake. We took a small canoe-like boat out to the middle of the lake and listened to the cicadas and birds as they sang around us.

"This is nice," Darien smiled, reaching for my hand. We realized it was a bit selfish, but we really didn't think much of the so-called illness, so we weren't too worried. We took our time, and really got to know each other, talking and laughing, and telling stories of times before we had met in both lives.

"I remember this one time on the moon," I laughed, "Rei and I had gotten into a big fight and Leita came over and just pushed Rei into the garden, she stood up with a flower right on the top of her head! Oh she was so mad, but I was just worried about my flowers!"

"Silly Serena."

"Silly Rei," I added, "she started it because she was telling me not to go past the gates, her usual argument with me."

"Sounds like her."

I shrugged, "I know she was just looking after me, just doing her job, but had I not fled, I never would've met you."

I put both my hands in his and squeezed. Darien kissed my hands and then told me a story that mine had reminded him of.

Once the light was beginning to disappear behind the trees, we decided it was probably time to start heading back. Just as Darien was helping to pull me up onto the dock I tripped and fell awkwardly into his arms. My nose bumped into his chest and I looked up at him apologetically.

"You okay?" he asked.

"Oh I think I've been through worse," I laughed.

He smiled with me then tightened his grip around me, then pulled me in for a kiss. I kissed him back sweetly and moved my hands from his chest to the back of his neck. Unfortunately our kiss was interrupted by a small girl who seemingly came out of nowhere. She pushed Darien and I to where we almost fell off the dock.

"Oops, sorry," she laughed nervously.

"Hey be careful!" I told the girl. She apologized again and I wondered who she was. She couldn't have been older than 6, with pink hair styled the same as mine, and a little grey kitten by her side.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"I'm not sure you're ready for that," she replied.

Darien looked down at the girl and I could tell he was just as confused as I was, "are you lost?"

"Maybe," she shrugged.

"Where's your mom and dad?"

She shrugged again and I sighed in frustration, "You know if you don't answer our questions then we won't be able to help you.

"Dianna?" she asked, turning towards the cat. The kitten sniffed around and shook her head.

"Dianna, is that your name?" I asked.

"No…my name is Rini."

"Rini, okay well that's something, so Dianna is your kitty then? She's very cute."

She nodded, "can we go home now?"

"Go home? Okay, well where do you live?"

"With you silly!"

"With us?"

"I mean, I do now."

"I don't understand."

"Um…you know, never mind. I gotta go!" the little girl ran off and she was gone before we could even chase after her.

"That was so strange," I said, looking up at Darien.

"Very strange. Did you get a weird vibe from her? Something…familiar?"

"Yeah, almost like I know her…but there's no way."

"Do you think maybe we knew her in our past life too?"

"I suppose it could be possible, let's go find Luna and ask her."

Darien nodded and I wrapped my arm around his, following him to the car. We found Luna and the girls behind the gym that we work out at, they were trying to come up with a plan for the mysterious illnesses.

"Hey guys, you're gunna wanna here about what just happened."

We sat down at their table and relayed the story, not leaving out anything after the kiss. Luna and Artemis pondered the story the most.

"You said she fell from the sky?" Artemis wondered.

"Well, I didn't actually see her fall from the sky, but one second she wasn't there, and then the next she was practically knocking us over!" I explained.

"What if she's from the Negaverse?" Leita asked.

"No way, we toasted those bitches," Mina said, clearly proud of her team.

"Yeah, we did," Rei agreed, "but still, I have had a weird vibe lately, maybe she's a new enemy?"

"A new enemy…" I thought.

"Its possible. I'm sure there's not only one evil group out there," Luna nodded.

"Oh damn, I kind of thought that we could go back to being normal college students."

"I'm afraid not. You guys will be sailor scouts for the rest of your lives."

"That's okay," Mina smiled, "its our jobs to protect the princess and the future of earth."

"What do you think the future will hold?" I pondered.

"No one knows," Luna stammered, "but now isn't the time to worry about it. We need to find that girl, find out if she's okay, and then figure out this illness issue."

"Right," we agreed.

"Let's split up, Serena, Darien, I'll go with you guys back to the lake. Mina, Artemis, you guys go to the park, Leita, Rei, and Ami, you go to the hospital and see if you can any information that the press won't release."

We all nodded, understanding our roles.

"We'll meet back here in one hour unless something happens, then use your communicator obviously."

We all went our separate ways, Dairen, Luna and I ending up in the same place that Darien and I had been before. Of course the little girl wasn't there anymore, so we walked around a bit looking for her.

"How far could such a little girl get?" Darien asked.

"What if someone picked her up?"

"Like her parents?"

"Like kidnappers!"

"Oh, that wouldn't be good. But I'm sure that's not the case, I'm sure she's fine."

We walked down a path for a ways, and I spotted a small mass of pink hair in a gazebo in the distance.

"Look!" I shouted.

She didn't even notice us until we came around and got into the gazebo.

"Oh, its you again," She sighed.

"What's wrong?" Darien asked, "did you get lost?"

"You already asked me that," she huffed.

Luna was sniffing Rini out when Dianna appeared from behind her legs. Luna jumped back and hid behind me, but Dianna followed her and booped her nose. Luna looked up at me, but I couldn't tell what was going through her little head.

"Rini, will you please let us help you?"

Rini looked down and Luna and her eyes grew wide, "uh, yes."

"Okay how can we help?"

"Will you take me home with you? I need a place to stay."

"Are you homeless?"

She looked at her kitten, then back to us, "yeah,"

I glanced at Darien, heartbroken. This poor little girl had nobody and nothing.

"If you have no family to go to, then…of course you can."

"Yeah, we can go back to my place, I've got a couch just calling your name," Darien laughed.

"Oh, I almost forgot, my names Serena Tsukino, and this is Darien Chiba."

She looked up at us and smiled from ear to ear, "I think we're going to get along just fine!"

She grabbed both of our hands and led us out of the gazebo. Something about having a child between Darien and I really just felt right. It made me think about our future together, and how I wanted that for us at some point.

Rini giggled and laughed all the way to the car but right as we were about to get in, the communicator beeped.

"Shit." I stammered, retrieving my compact from my bag, "what's up?"

"Trouble in the park!" Venus announced. I got de je vu as it was nearly the same as last time.

"Four kings?"

"No, it's someone else, just hurry!"

I nodded and closed the compact, "Darien, why don't you take her back to your place, I can handle this, and I'll meet you back there after."

"Okay sure, be safe," he added, "I love you."

"I love you too."

Rini looked up and frowned. I didn't really have time to ask her why she looked upset, I just began running towards the park with Luna in tow.

"So I guess its safe to say the little one isn't the new enemy," I observed once I arrived on scene. A monster with four faces was attacking the people in the park, taking their energy and knocking them out.

"And I guess we found the source of the so-called illness," Ami noted as she, Rei, and appeared next to me.

Venus had handled the monster pretty well on her own but couldn't quite finish him off, so the rest of the gang and I helped her out. The battle was quick, and it didn't take near the effort that our battle with Beryl had, however I noticed towards the end of our battle, two figures appeared in the sky above the park. They were watching over the monster just like the four kings had with previous monsters.

"So it is the Negaverse?" I asked Luna. She looked up at the figures; one appeared to be a woman with pink hair and blue streaks, pink eyes that were slanted outwards, and pail green skin. The figure next to her was a man with the same pail skin but blue eyes and blue hair with pink streaks. They wore matching purple jumpsuits and held their shoulders back confidently.

"I don't know who they are," Luna admitted.

Getting distracted by the figures, I was almost captured by the monster, and I jumped back just in time.

"Cardian!" The blue one yelled, "I think we've got all the energy we needed for the day, get rid of those girls."

The monster agreed, swapping to a different face every few seconds. I saw my opportunity to dispose of the monster and I pulled out my wand to do so. Shouting my mantra, a light appeared from the crystal, it pulsed and suddenly the monster grew brighter and brighter until it burst into flames and turned to dust.

There was no time to celebrate.

"Who are you?" I asked the figures as they were trying to get away.

The woman laughed, "I am An."

"And I am Ail," the man added.

"And what do you want?"

"We got what we came for."

"Well us Sailor Scouts will make sure that next time you won't be so lucky."

"Yeah, you can't just go around stealing everyone's energy!" Ami shouted.

"So long, Sailor Scouts," the man waved and the two disappeared.

I shook my head in disbelief, "why does no one tell us anything?"

"Well I don't think someone who's evil is just gunna up and tell you their whole life story just cause you asked," Sailor Mars sighed, a palm to her forehead.

"I know but…it would be nice. Anyways I should get back to Darien."

"Did you find her?" They group asked.

"Yeah, apparently she's a homeless girl that's been wandering around the lake. Darien took her home with him, we need to go check on them," Luna told them.

"Oh that poor little girl."

"Yeah, but I still have a weird feeling about her, and so does he, so we're going to just keep a close eye on her instead of turning her in to the police," I shared.

"That could be a smart idea, always go with your intuition," Artimus said, paw in the air.

"Yeah, and I'm sure she's going to need a few things, so I'll see you guys later."

I waved goodbye and Luna and I leapt off.

I knocked on Darien's door and it took him a few minutes to answer the door, but when he did I looked around and noticed how messed up everything was. Normally he was really good at keeping his place clean. Like much better than any other guy I'd met, but this time it looked like a tornado had come through.

"Looks like you've got a toddler," I teased.

"Yeah, she wore herself out pretty good. Passed out on my lap a few minutes ago," he gestured for me to come in and take a look, and since it was an apartment, just stepping into the place I was already in the living room. I looked at the little pink haired girl all curled up on the couch and smiled.

"She's cute when she's not being stubborn," I laughed.

Darien went to the linin closet and got out a couple blankets, handing one to me, "yeah she is."

"I wonder what her story is."

He shrugged, "maybe one day she'll tell us, but I don't think she trusts us well enough yet, we are strangers to her after all."

"True, I guess if I was in her position, I wouldn't be too trusting either."

Rini stirred in her sleep as we covered her in the blankets, but she didn't wake up, so Darien and I went into the bedroom, leaving the door open in case she woke up and got scared.

I told him about what happened at the park, about our new enemy, and about my confusions. He listened intently and gave his thoughts on the subject.

"He called the monster a cardian?"

I nodded, "why, do you know what that means?"

"No, but I know the four kings never called their monsters that.

In the morning I awoke to Rini sitting on my stomach touching my face.

"Rini what are you doing?"

"Looking for something."

"What are you looking for?" Darien asked, rolling over to face us.

"Nothing."

I shook my head as Dianna jumped up on the bed and nuzzled against me. Rini's tummy rumbled and she gasped, reaching for her stomach.

"Hungry?"

She nodded.

"How 'bout I make some breakfast?" Darien suggested, "any requests?"

"Pancakes!"

"You got it."

Rini seemed to be a sweet kid, a little on the high maintenance side, but nice enough. She was very secretive and kept to herself when it came to her background, but otherwise she was very talkative and a bit noisy.

After breakfast we took her to the grocery store to buy her some new clothes and other things she would need, and while we were there, we came across Mina and Artemis.

"Oh hey guys!" I waved.

Mina waved back, "oh hey!"

She leaned down and smiled at Rini, "so you must be the little one I've heard so much about!"

Rini smiled up at her and then noticed Artemis and petted him. Dianna sniffed him and rubbed her nose up against him but he seemed weary of her. He and Luna glanced at each other and both raised their shoulders.

"What're you guys up to?" Mina asked.

"Oh we just thought we'd get Rini some new clothes, you know."

"Right, well I'd love to help! I'm great at helping people pick out clothes!"

"Mina here is a model!" I told Rini.

"Really? Wow!" She giggled and hopped around Mina, tugging on her dress. Mina just laughed in response and led us to the clothing section of the store. She helped pick out a few nice things and then we went over to the shoe section and got her a cute pair of (?).

"Thank you for buying this for me, Mommy!" She laughed for a moment and then realized what she said and her eyes grew cold, "oh, sorry."

She accidentally called me mommy...the poor thing probably misses her own.

"Hey Rini, what do you say we go for a walk after this?" I suggested.

She nodded quietly and sulked for the rest of the time at the store. Once we had paid and put everything in the car, Mina waved goodbye and it was just the three of us plus the cats again. We went to the park before going back to Darien's apartment, and Rini held both of our hands as we walked. We came across a bench overlooking the river and we stopped to sit for a while.

"Hey Rini," Darien began.

"Yeah?" She replied softly.

"Won't you tell us what happened...to your mommy?"

"She's just...not around right now."

"So she's alive?"

"Kinda."

"Can we find her; can we help you reconnect with your family?"

"I know where she is, but I want to be here with you guys."

I texted Darien so Rini wouldn't hear me talking to him about her. In the text i said that maybe it was just her and her mom and her mom was really abusive so she ran away from home. He replied with a maybe and we left it at that.

Rei and Leita passed by us then and waved us over. We walked up to them and I introduced the little lady to my friends. She curtseyed in her new skirt and Rei and Leita fawned over her. Rini forgot all about her troubles for a while as we took her to the playground so she could swing and run around. She was having so much fun chasing Dianna and going down the slides that she hadn't even noticed when some of the other people in the park started dropping. But we noticed.

Chapter 10

The sky turned dark as the same two figures from the other day appeared before us.

"Not again," I grumbled.

"Why don't you take her this time," Darien said.

I nodded but really didn't want to miss out on the fight so I called Rini over and we rushed back to the car, I put her inside the car and told her to stay put and to not let anyone in but me or Darien no matter what. She fought me on it but I persisted, and I ran off, telling her I would be back in just a few minutes.

The girls and Dairen had already transformed and began fighting by the time I got back. Ail and An had used another cardian to begin draining the energy from innocent bystanders, and were watching curiously overhead. We fought the monster as usual and were able to defeat it quickly. Before Ail and An could leave, I ran over to them and begged them to tell us why they were hurting innocent people. They again refused to share any information at all.

"Hey get back here!" I warned, "We're not done!"

"Oh but I think we are!" An laughed, "we got what we wanted, like we always do."

"Don't get in our way Sailor Scouts, or it won't end well for you," Ail added.

"Oo I'm so scared."

"As you should be."

"Clearly you don't understand sarcasm."

"I understand perfectly well, but I think you underestimate our power. You have been warned."

An and Ail disappeared after that and the park was quiet once again. Sirens wailed in the distance and I immediately de-transformed and ran back to the car with Darien. Rini wasn't in the car and I began to panic.

"Serena this is why I told you to watch her!"

"I'm sorry, I told her to stay put."

"Never mind that, everyone split up!"

Everyone went in different directions and looked for Rini. She was found about a block away from the car, hiding behind a tree.

"Rini!" I heard Amy gasp. We ran over to her and I fell onto my knees and picked her up. She was a little shook but otherwise fine. Darien came up behind me and put a hand on her head. She closed her eyes and cried.

"It's okay, you're safe now," he reassured her.

I pulled back a bit, "Rini why did you run off after I asked you not to?"

"I just wanted to help, but I don't think I can. I'm not strong enough."

"Oh Rini, don't ever say that, you are so strong, we can tell. Call it intuition if you will. I appreciate that you wanted to help, but this is adult stuff, so you just gotta let the adults handle it, okay?"

"I want to go home," she sighed.

"Yeah okay, let's go home."

"No I want to go home to mommy!"

I turned to Darien and sighed, I was at a loss for what to do. I never had very much experience with kids, and while I was still suspicious of the little one's background, I still felt an odd pull towards her. There was just something about her that made me want to help her, to be with her, almost like she was family or something.

"Rini, in order for us to take you there, you have to tell us where home and mommy are."

"No, no I can't go back, I can't."

"Why not?"

She sniffled then stood up straight, "I have to learn first."

"Learn what?"

"I have to learn how to be…like you…strong…and brave!"

"Rini, what did you see back there?"

She paused, thinking, "I saw the Sailor Scouts and Tuxedo Mask fighting the bad guys."

"Uhhuh, and what about us?"

"You're them. Right?"

I looked around, wondering how much she should tell her, or if we should just lie. I decided the truth was always the best. Besides, if she couldn't trust me to tell her the truth, how could we trust her to tell us her truth?

"Yes, Rini, I am Sailor Moon, we are the Sailor Scouts. You have absolutely nothing to fear, because we will always be here for you, and we will always protect you."

"We will never let anything happen to you Rini. If you can't go home for reasons you want to keep secret, then so be it, we just want you to be safe and happy," Darien told her, kneeling down next to me.

Rini started tearing up again and she jumped into his arms, "thank you."

I patted her back and turned to my girls, "well guys I think she's had a rough day, we should probably be getting her back."

They nodded, "yeah okay, see you later! Feel better Rini, okay?"

Rini buried her head into Darien's shoulder and he held onto her tightly. We said our goodbyes and headed back to the car, putting Rini into her new booster seat. She fell asleep on the way back to Darien's place and didn't even wake up when I pulled her out of the car. I wrapped her arms and legs around me and carried her up to the apartment. She didn't even stir when I laid her on the couch. Dianna just curled up next to her and fell fast asleep. Poor little kitty was probably exhausted too.

I tried to sleep that night but I just couldn't. After about an hour of lying in Darien's bed I got up and got a snack from the kitchen. Getting the munchies didn't help my nerves and I began pacing in the small living room. I was keeping Darien awake too because then he was worried about me, so we both ended up in the loveseat next to the couch, just watching Rini. We wondered why she knew so much, but wouldn't tell us anything, and where she really came from, what her goal was, and why she seemed so conflicted.

I sighed because I thought that I was thinking about her the same way I would an enemy, trying to figure out what their weakness was so I could crush them, but this was different, I was trying to find out who she really was so that I could help her in any way I could. It was weird because the more I thought about, the more I realized she was growing on me, it was almost as if I was gaining some sort of Parental instinct or something.

Darien rubbed my back to soothe me and it helped enough that we both ended up passed out on the loveseat and when we awoke in the morning we found Rini curled into a ball squeezed between us.

"I don't want to move but I really need to pee," I laughed.

Darien laughed, "she's actually a really cute kid."

Rini yawned and rubbed her eyes as she began to wake up.

"Daddy?" She mumbled.

"It's me, little one," Darien soothed.

"And don't forget me," I smiled.

Rini opened her eyes and realized she was laying on us and hopped of our laps, "I'm sorry."

"Don't be, if you want to sleep with us, I don't mind, do you?"

Darien shook his head, "are you feeling any better Rini?"

She nodded, "much thank you."

"Good, I'm glad, now what should we do about breakfast?"

"Pancakes?"

"Again?"

"Yup."

"Those are your favorite, huh?"

"Yeah! Especially when Darien makes them!"

"Well gee, thanks, I sure try!" Darien laughed.

After breakfast we took Rini back to my school both so I could get some things from my dorm and also so I could get my books for the new semester. While we were at the school's bookstore, Rini was looking at all the art supplies with wide eyes.

"Do you like to draw?" I asked her.

"I'm not very good at it, but I love coloring!"

I thought about it for a moment and realized she was probably old enough to start kindergarten.

"Um, Darien, you suppose she should be enrolled in school?"

His eyes grew wide, "Rini, have you ever gone to school before?"

She shook her head, "no but I've seen it on TV, it looks fun!"

"Maybe we should enroll her."

"But what if we find her family?"

"No, I need to go to school where I can be with you guys!"

"Whys that?" I asked.

"Um. Well because that's what Mommy and Daddy would want."

"Rini, you hadn't said anything about your Daddy until today, is he still with your mom?"

"I've said too much!" she turned away from us and ran to the other side of the book store.

"What is she hiding?" I sighed, frustrated.

Darien shrugged, "I think we should get her enrolled, no kid should go without school. If she does end up leaving us for some reason, at least she won't be behind on her education. She can always be pulled out and moved to a different school."

"Good point. I guess we should get her some school supplies to then huh?"

"Yeah, but let's take her somewhere that doesn't sell their books for $200."

"Again, good point."

We let Rini cool off by looking at all the art supplies and trinkets the bookstore had to offer, and when we were ready to checkout Darien picked her up. She squirmed a bit, but more so because she wanted to keep looking at the trinkets rather than actually being mad about being picked up.

Darien carried Rini and I carried my books back to my dorm, but before we got to my door we were greeted by Anna. She purposefully brushed past me, knocking my brand new books out of my hands, and went right up to Darien.

"Well hello there Darien! Oh, who's this?" she asked, completely ignoring me. I frowned and picked up my books, inspecting them for damage. Darien squirmed and Rini frowned at her. It was almost as if she could immediately tell that she didn't like Anna.

"Anna, how nice to see you again," I grumbled.

"Likewise. So who's the kid, is she yours?"

"Uh, well she's Rini. Serena and I are watching her for a while."

"Oh well I just love kids! I could help you if you want!"

"That's okay, I think we'll manage."

A door few down from where we were opened up and Al emerged.

"Oh Serena! How lovely to see you again! And Darien too!"

"Ah, brother, I was just about to tell our new friend Darien that we were just about to make some tea."

"Yes, please, Serena, Darien, and the little one too, why don't you guys join us?"

"Oh I don't think that's really nec-" I started. Before I could finish my sentence the three of us were pushed down the hall into Al and Anna's dorm. It was so clean that it looked like no one actually lived there, with very little furniture, and no pictures or decorations of any kind.

"How…quaint," I mumbled.

Rini clung to Darien like she was scared and I took a mental note to ask her why later. I figured we could keep the pleasantries short and get out of their place quickly.

"So do you like the school so far?" Darien asked.

"I like it a lot, I've already signed up for five classes this semester," Al smiled.

I slowly paced for a bit, trying to keep my nerves down, but something about their dorm just gave me a bad vibe. Something told me I shouldn't stay long and that I should get Rini out of there.

"Hey, is this your bedroom?" I asked, looking at a door that was giving off a bad aura.

"Uh, yeah, but it's really messy so I'd rather you not check it out okay?" Anna huffed.

I nodded, I knew my boundaries. I couldn't force her to tell me why I could practically see a dark ring around the door.

"Um, we should probably get going," I told Darien. I reached out for Rini and he passed her off to me. She wrapped her arms around my neck and stuck her tongue out at Anna.

"Rini that's not nice," Darien told her.

Anna laughed what seemed like nervously, "oh kids will be kids, don't be a stranger now, okay? If you need any help you just let me know!" she shoved us out the door then and slammed it shut.

"she seems nice," Rini said sarcastically.

"Rini why did you not like her?" I asked. I knew why _I_ didn't like Anna and Al, but I wanted to know why a six year old immediately didn't like them.

"They scared me," she replied.

"Why did they scare you?" Darien asked.

"They looked like those bad guys!"

A flash of Ail and An popped into my head and I could see where she got that from. I mean their skin, eyes, and hair were all different looking, but there was something about them that was similar. Ail and An, Al and Anna…

"Darien do you suppose-" I didn't even have to finish my question before Darien's eyes went wide.

"What if they are?" He stammered.

We reached my dorm then and when we got inside we found Amy reading a book on the couch.

"Hey Rini!" She smiled.

Rini ran right up to her and gave her a hug, "whatcha reading?"

"Oh I'm just reading a collection of short stories by Shakespeare."

"Shakespeare?"

"Mhm he was-"

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but Rini, can you tell Amy what you just told us in the hallway?"

"About those scary people?"

I nodded.

"I said they make me think of those bad guys the Sailor Scouts fought yesterday."

"Who reminded you of them?" Amy asked.

"Al and Anna, those guys I was telling you about that live in this building," I shared, "they invited us in a few minutes ago and we all got a really weird vibe. I mean at least, Rini and I did, Darien, did you?"

"Yeah I did too actually. Something just didn't feel right about being in their dorm."

"So you think Al and Anna are really Ail and Anne?"

"Do you think it's possible?"

"I mean, I guess if we have the powers that we have, maybe one of their powers is to change their appearance. If that is the case though, they sure didn't put any effort into changing their names."

I couldn't help but laugh at her comment, "we'll we can look into it tomorrow. We just came by to pick up some stuff for me to take to Darien's but now I kinda feel bad for leaving you here all alone, will you be okay by yourself?"

She smiled and tilted her head to the side, "of course, I've got my books to keep me company. Besides the other girls are pretty close if I need them."

"True. But still. We can stay here tonight if you want us too, it's just that Darien has a much bigger bed than I do…for strictly sleeping purposes of course."

"Of course," she laughed, "no don't worry about me."

"Well do you at least want to come with us? We're going to go to the store to get some back to school supplies."

"I think I would excel in helping you with that, sure I'd love to go."

The store was just as busy as we imagined it would be, everyone was getting last second supplies for their kids. It made me feel good to know that I was getting to help a kid out.

We figured being 6 she really only needed like crayons, some paper, tissues, things like that, so it was a pretty quick trip, but Amy was very helpful. She had even found a guide in the store that helped people know what to get for each grade.

"Thanks for all your help Amy," I smiled.

"No problem, anything to make sure a girl gets her education," she laughed.

"Since we took Darien's car, we'll take you back before we head over to Darien's place."

"Sounds good."

Rini fell asleep during the car ride back to school, so we felt we could talk a bit more openly.

"Next time we see those Alien-looking creatures I expect to get some real answers from them," I growled.

"Yeah, but princess, you have to be careful what you ask. If you ask them straight up, 'are you really Al and Anna, they'll know who you are," Darien warned.

"No they won't."

"I hate to say it, Serena, but Darien's right. If you say anything about Al and Anna they're going to figure it out."

"Why would they?"

"I mean, Darien's the only one of us that wears a mask, and you're hairstyle…it's a little on the unique side. As is mine of course, but I think if they're smart, they'll figure it out. If people really put some serious thought into it…it probably wouldn't be that hard. I mean us five girls are always together, same girls, same looks. At least if Ail and An really are Al and Anna, they've changed their appearance significantly, but us, all we change is our outfits."

"Yeah I guess you have a point. Gee thinking about that makes me wonder why no one else has figured it out yet."

"Rini did."

"Yeah but that's because she saw us."

"Did she see us transform, or did she just see a couple of us in our normal closes, and then all of us in our uniforms?"

I paused, holding a finger up, "um…I don't know actually."

"If she didn't see us transform then that means that she was smart enough to put two and two together, right?"

"I guess so."

"And she's only six."

"Yeah but I mean she's a pretty smart 6 year old."

"While that's not wrong, my argument remains."

"Yeah, yeah I see your point. Darien, what do you think?"

"I think its definitely something that needs to get investigated. I mean we don't even know why these...well why Ail and An want to steal people's energy anyways, I mean, what are they doing with it? Whatever the reason though, it needs to be stopped. We can't allow them to continue hurting people the way they are. I don't care what planet they came from, on Earth we take care of our people."

"Right. If we want to be like our past selves, if we want to be like a prince and princess, our people need to come first."

Luna spoke for the first time all day, she hadn't wanted Rini to know that she could talk, but I guess she couldn't hold it in any longer, so since Rini was sleeping she figured it was okay to go ahead and speak quietly. "I say tomorrow we hold a Scout meeting to come up with a plan to stop this new enemy."

"You're right Luna, I'll arrange it," I assured. She nodded and went back to being silent, just in case. I noticed Dianna eyeballing Luna, probably wondering what the heck she was saying since it definitely wasn't meows. She climbed over the cup holders in-between the two front seats and crawled into my lap, sniffing Luna, then me. I stroked her short grey fur and she purred.

"What goes through your little head?" I laughed as she meowed like she was answering my question.

It wasn't long before we reached the school parking lot nearest to our dorm, and upon arrival, we looked up at the sky and noticed that it was eerily dark just above the campus only. Just as I was about to ask a question, Amy and I's communicators went off. We opened them and were greeted by a frantic Sailor Venus.

"Ah we could use your help guys, are you home? Cause I'm sure you could see this from your window if you are."

"We're in the parking lot."

"Yeah we'll be there in a second!"

The communication was cut off before anything else was said.

"She's asleep, she'll be okay here for just a minute, let's go," I told them.

"Luna, watch over her, if anything happens, come get me," Darien told her. Luna was more than capable of watching over a sleeping child. She wasn't a normal cat, she would be fine.

We ran off to the scene and upon arrival we saw An and Ail with their hands wrapped around Sailor Venus' and Sailor Mars' necks.

"Let go of them!" I screamed, jumping up and throwing my tiara at An. Tuxedo Mask threw his signature rose to Ail, and both he and An were struck on the wrists. They yelped and jumped back, letting go of the girls.

"I won't let you get away with treating my friends like that!" I yelled, catching my tiara as it came back to me.

"How nice of you to join the party, An laughed.

"I won't tell you who I am because I know you already know, but what you don't know is that either you can tell us who you are and why you're draining the energy of all these innocent people, or you die. Tonight."

They laughed, "I was about to say that last part to you."

"You're right that I would risk my own life to protect my friends, but I think you underestimate my strength."

"Perhaps. Maybe it's time we fight one on one instead of bringing a cardian into this."

"Bring it."

I stepped forward, prepared for almost anything. The Scouts and Tuxedo Mask allowed me to fight on my own for a few minutes, knowing I could handle anything they threw at me, but they both came at me at once after a few minutes, and I lost my balance. I was knocked to the ground, scraping my hand and elbow pretty badly. It didn't really hurt, but it started to bleed heavily, and it took me a minute to regain my composure. The last thing I thought would happen happened after that though. Rini ran and jumped in front of me, looking up at the people who hurt me with a scowl on her face.

"Rini no what are you doing!" we all shouted.

She raised her hands, telling us to stay back with such a fierce voice we all listened to her.

"You leave them alone!" she yelled to Ail and An.

"And what do you think you're going to do?" Ail laughed and shot a force out, blowing everyone back and knocking over Amy, who was closest to him.

"I'm warning you!" she squeaked.

An grabbed my arm as I watched Rini, too scared to move, and yanked me back. She put a claw to my neck and threatened to cut my throat.

Rini had had enough.

"Rini, run, please!" I begged.

"No!" she screamed so loudly I thought her head was going to explode, but what happened was even less expected. A crescent moon shape appeared on her forehead and a beam of light shot out above her. She pulled an object out of her skirt pocket that looked a lot like my compact, and shouted 'moon prism power'.

An let go oh my neck and we all stared in astonishment. Before our very eyes our little Rini transformed into a little Sailor Scout with a pink bow and skirt.

"I am Sailor Mini Moon! And in the name of the Moon, I will not allow you to harm the ones I love!"

All of us had our mouths gaped open. Sailor Mini Moon?

Chapter 11

"Rini what have you done?" I asked. They were going to figure out who we really were now.

"You're a Sailor Scout?" Sailor Jupiter asked.

Rini- Sailor Mini Moon- without even thinking, shouted, 'pink sugar heart attack' while holding a wand very similar to my own, and very similar to Venus's power, a group of hearts shot out towards Ail and An. It was strong enough to knock them back, but not strong enough to do much else.

I think we were all still in such a shock that we could barely move, but when Ail and An started attacking all of us again we had to get out of our funk and get back into the zone. Each one of us attacked at the same time and Ail and An were thrown to the floor, scraped and bruised. They grunted, struggling to stand.

"You know what, this isn't fun anymore," An growled.

Ail pulled a musical instrument out of his pocket and played a surprisingly calm melody on it. He held up a deck of cards and An picked one out, barely lifting a finger to do so. Ail called upon the card and a monster appeared before us.

"Cardian," Ail shouted to the monster, "I've grown tired of these girls, take their energy!"

"Yes master," the monster agreed, bowing to Ail before turning to us. The monster screeched and ran towards us as Ail and An disappeared for the millionth time.

"Moon healing activation!" I yelled, aiming my wand at the cardian. The monster was pushed back and turned to ash within seconds.

I wiped my arm on my forehead and immediately ran for Rini. At very first I hugged her, but then I put my hands on her shoulder which frightened her a bit.

"You're a Sailor Scout?" I asked. Tuxedo Mask and the girls and ran up to us and gathered around, asking various questions. She looked around nervously, unsure if she should answer any of our questions, let alone all of them.

"Guys," Tuxedo Mask interrupted, "maybe we should give her some space, I'm sure once everything has calmed down we can all ask her our questions one at a time."

We grumbled but quietly agreed.

"Come on," I waved, impromptu Scout meeting at my place."

We all went around the corner, de-transformed, then went back to Amy and I's dorm. We shut and locked the door behind us and all gathered around the coffee table. Rini sat in Darien's lap with Dianna in her own, I sat next to them, but I could tell that Rini was very nervous. She was probably worried about not giving away any more secrets. Clearly she had quite a few of them.

"Sooo…" Luna Dragged out.

Oddly enough, Rini seemed unsurprised by Luna's ability to talk. I wonder if she was really awake in the car and just had her eyes closed.

"Rini, were you listening to our conversation in the car?" I asked.

"You mean before the fight?"

I nodded.

"No, I really was asleep, why?"

"Because you don't really seem surprised by Luna's...ability to speak."

She swallowed loudly and looked to Dianna, whom looked back and meowed.

"Perhaps I could answer that one," Dianna said taking in each one of our surprised reactions. Luna and Artemis seemed the most surprised, and they glanced back and forth at each other and her.

"Yes, I can speak too," Dianna revealed.

"But...how?" Artemis asked.

She laughed, "did you really think you two are the only ones like you?"

"I mean, yeah, kinda. I've never met another."

Luna nodded in agreement.

"Well now you have."

The two cats just kind of stood there in astonishment.

"Okay well I guess that answers that then," I sighed, "now Rini, why didn't you tell us sooner that you're a Sailor Scout?"

"Because I had to make sure I had the right people."

"Why Sailor Mini Moon, I'm Sailor Moon."

"Uh..."

"Rini is from another moon, a much smaller one that orbits Venus." Dianna replied.

"Oh wow! So it's kinda like I have a little sister!" Mina laughed and hugged Rini.

Rini laughed and hugged her back, "yeah!"

"You know what's weird though?" I asked Darien later that night after everyone else had fallen asleep.

"What?" He asked.

"Well we all have our memories back, but you know, I don't recall a Rini or Dianna at all."

Darien put a hand to his chin and thought about it, "you're right, I don't either. Maybe she's not a reincarnation though; maybe this is her first time around."

"But why? Why would the universe suddenly need another Sailor Moon?" I gasped dramatically, "what if she's my replacement?"

Darien laughed, " one, no one can replace you, and two, there's no need, you're young, and you just started being a Sailor Scout yourself, why would you be replaced after just a few months?"

"I guess you make a good point, but it all still seems so fishy."

"Babe, she's just a little kid, what kind of bad intentions do you really think she has?"

"Yeah I know, but I just get a weird vibe from her, you know you do too. Maybe she's my replacement because she's going to kill me and take my spot."

"Why would a good guy murder a good guy to take their place as good guy?"

"True again, I guess a true good guy doesn't murder in cold blood."

"See, there's nothing to worry about."

"Then why are you worried?"

"I'm not."

"But you said yourself you get a weird vibe from her too."

"Yeah, but I don't know, it doesn't feel like a bad one, just strange, familiar, isn't that what your vibe tells you?"

"Well..."

"Think about it for a minute."

I did, "yeah I guess so."

"So there you go."

"How do you do that?" I asked.

"Do what?"

"Always know exactly what to say."

He shrugged.

I heard Rini stir in the other room and we went in to check on her. She was moving around a lot in her sleep and groaning like she was having a bad dream. Darien and I climbed into the bed with her in between us and I wrapped my arm around her.

"Mommy?" She cried in her sleep. I sighed and she turned and shifted to the fetal position, nuzzling her body into mine.

I wrapped my arms around her, "Serena's here little lady, don't worry, I'll protect you, and so will Darien."

I looked up at my man and he was gleaming down at Rini, it was so sweet to see him so worried and protective her. He put his hand on her hair and stroked it until she fell back to sleep.

"Mommy," she repeated, hugging me tightly. It made me sad for her, to think that she couldn't have her real mom to do that for her.

A month later seemed like only a day later, as the time had gone by so quickly. Sailor Mini Moon had gone with us to every battle since the first one, except for the ones that took place during school hours. Rini was actually really enjoying school, she had already made a couple of good friends and she was getting very good grades, even if her grades were 99% participation points, and her teacher seemed to really like her. She was starting to fit in and feel comfortable around here including Darien and I, and that made me happy, but we still knew nothing more about her than we did the day we found out she's a Sailor scout.

Darien and I planned on taking her on a special fun-day type thing so that we could talk to her when she's at her happiest.

"Are you ready for our adventure today?" Darien asked her.

"Yeah!" She squealed.

At this point in the year, the leaves had already started to fall, and my favorite place, a nearby amusement park, had already shut down for the season, so Darien and I had decided we would take Rini out for hot cocoa, then to the library, and then to a sanctuary where she could pet some goats and cows and other animals. She was so excited she could barely contain her little six year old energy.

We went early in the morning so that by afternoon we would already be done and she could take a nap. We should've known that giving her hot cocoa would make her even crazier.

Rini held Darien's hand as she sipped from her cup and we found some seats. I noted that we got a few stares and glares from passerby and I always came to the worst conclusion, but I shook it off and ignored them. I would not be intimidated by strangers, I have much bigger problems now, and their names are Al and Anna. It was weird being around them whenever we bumped paths at school, they never said anything about Rini and I never said anything about Ail and An. I still didn't have enough evidence to truly believe they were the culprits. Just because they had similar names and somewhat similar features didn't mean they were the same people, right?

Anyways Rini chatted with us about school as we sipped on our coffee and her hot cocoa, and once we were done we walked across the street to the barns and noble. Rini was amazed by the place, it was five stories tall and the stairs wound up and down in the middle. There was a story for each category, music, games, kids' books, and a couple others but those three were her favorite. We spent a lot longer than we should have in the store, Darien was covered in encyclopedias, I was wrapped up in anime, and Rini was looking through picture books.

We laughed, we cried, all that good stuff, and when we had finally had enough, Rini took our hands and led us out. On the way to the sanctuary we passed by a pumpkin patch and Rini was in awe.

"Can we stop there?" She asked.

Darien and I looked at each other and shrugged, "sure why not?"

Darien pulled over and stopped in the small parking lot. The pumpkin patch was actually pretty full out, with a tractor ride, playground, and weekend group activities.

"Wow!" Rini smiled, bouncing around.

"Can I get a pumpkin please?" She begged, tugging on Darien's sleeve.

"Sure, you can have one, how about we each get one and then later tonight we can carve them together?"

She gasped, "really? Thank you Darien!"

"That sounds fun," I smiled, "I've actually never done that before."

"Really?" Darien asked, "well I think you'll like it. And when we're done we could even make a dish out of the insides."

"Sounds gross but I'm game."

"I haven't either!" Rini exclaimed.

"Well then this will be even more fun for both of you!" Darien replied.

There was a surprising amount of teenagers and adults at the pumpkin patch, normally I would assume there would be a lot of kids but there weren't that many. Rini played on the playground for a while all by herself as we watched from a bench nearby. At one point Rini tripped and scraped her knee. Both Darien and I jumped up and ran over to her and immediately pulled her up as she began to cry.

"You okay?" I asked. She hugged me for a moment then backed up and wiped away her tears. I stood up and gestured for her to do the same. She reached up to Darien but he shook his head.

"Come on you're okay, you've got this."

"Yeah Rini, come on lets go pick out your pumpkin."

She paused for a bit then jumped up and started following us back to the garden area. On the way there we heard a scream come from the back of the farmhouse on the plot and jumped, ready for action.

A blue haired boy rained down from the sky alongside a pink haired girl. Together they called upon a cardian and attacked the people left standing. The three of us ran to the side of the building and transformed.

"Why must you guys always do this?" I asked, jumping out from the side of the house in my Sailor Scout uniform. Tuxedo Mask and Sailor Mini Moon followed closely behind.

"Why must you always ruin our fun?" An cackled.

I rolled my eyes and brought my hand up to my forehead. Before I could attack, I was blown back into Tuxedo Mask's arms.

"You okay?" He asked.

I nodded and jumped back up then threw my tiara at the same time as Darien threw his rose. They both struck the cardian and he screamed.

"Now Sailor Mini Moon!" I told her. She got her wand out and shouted her attack. Her attack wasn't very powerful and the cardian barely felt it, but she was young, she still needed practice, and that's what she was doing. The monster came at us, trying to steal our energy as it did those innocent people. I dodged the first attempt, but was unable to on the second. A gross, slimy arm roped around my neck and another gripped my waist as I struggled to free myself. I wasn't in that position for long as Tuxedo Mask, as usual, came to my rescue.

I nodded to him as a thank you and the three of us jumped, Rini and Darien worked on the cardian while I fought Ail and An. They were tough, I'll give them that, but they had zero stamina. After a very short time they gave up on me and told the cardian to "finish her off".

I raised my wand and shouted my mantra, and just as quickly as it came, the monster was gone.

"Yes!" Rini cheered.

"Great job Sailor Moon!" Tuxedo Mask applauded.

I grinned and turned back to what I was hoping would be Ail and An, but they were gone. Somehow they seemed to do that every time.

After de-transforming and calling the police we got our pumpkins and went straight home. We were all too tired to continue the day's adventure.

Rini passed out on the couch the second we got home and Darien and I soon followed. We woke up around 6 pm, hungry but feeling better after our nap.

Darien and I decided to make rice curry for dinner and Rini insisted on helping. She said it was her mom's favorite. I had yet to try it, my cooking skills weren't that great but Darien was amazing at it.

Rini stirred the rice and Darien and I chopped the veggies and it was actually really fun even though I almost chopped my finger off.

By the time we all sat down to eat my stomach was grumbling. I dug in quickly, barely able to taste my first couple bites. I told myself to slow down and once I was actually able to taste it, I realized it was one of the best meals I'd ever had.

"Wow! Great job guys! I think this might be my new favorite dish!"

"Well thanks Serena," Darien smiled.

"Rini how do you like it?"

"I love it since Darien made it," she grinned.

I rolled my eyes, "I know, I know, I'm not the best cook, but I'll tell you what, I put more love into what I cook than anything else."

"Maybe too much love and not enough of the other stuff," Rini teased, sticking her tongue out. I stuck mine out in reply and Darien laughed.

"You guys!"

After a few minutes Darien glanced at me and I could tell what he was thinking. It was time to ask her about her background.

"So Rini," Darien started.

"Yes Darien?" She replied both sweetly and sarcastically.

"We were wondering if you might be ready to tell us more about you."

"Oh...no thank you."

Darien and I sat back, unsure how to respond.

"Uh, Rini, can't u tell us...about the moon that you came from? I mean, to be honest Rini, we're all Sailor Scouts, we're teammates, sisters, we aren't supposed to keep secrets from each other."

She thought about what I said, and she looked like she was just about to tell us everything, but Dianna put a paw on her knee.

"Dianna, why are you keeping her from telling us?"

"She may tell you, when the time is right. But that's not now."

"The little grey kitten sat on her behind and started licking her paw like she was just a normal cat.

"Yeah, I'll tell you one day, but you're not ready yet."

"Why aren't we ready?"

"When I tell you, you'll realize why. Can't I just be happy staying with you guys? Why can't I just have this one little secret? I promise I will tell you, just not yet. Can't you trust me?"

Darien and I sighed in unison.

"You're right Little Lady; you should be able to be comfortable and happy here. I'm sorry we've been so pushy. We will let you take your time on this so long as you do eventually tell us," I told her.

"But just so we know... Sweetie...how long will you be with us? I don't want you to have to sleep on the couch or squished with us if you're going to be staying a while, I want you to have your own bed." Darien finished.

Her eyes gleamed, "that would be fine! I think I'll be here long enough for that!" She paused and looked at Dianna, choosing her words carefully, "one thing I think I can tell you is that the reason I came here is to train with the Sailor Scouts, and I can't go home until I've completed my training."

"How do you know when you've completed it?" Darien asked.

She shrugged, "I can't tell you that much, it would give too much away."

"Well...okay."

"Thanks for dinner guys!"

We nodded as she started rubbing her eyes.

"Come on," I told her, "let's get you ready for bed."

We had decided to finally leave Rini alone about everything and just let her be the little kid she deserves to be. She had been with us long enough for us to know that she can be trusted, just because she has a secret doesn't mean she has bad intentions. I just felt bad that it took me so long to realize that. The little lady has grown on me, sure, sometimes we argue and tease each other but when it came down to it she had all the love to give. Often times she would cry for her parents in her sleep and she would always stop when either Darien or I cuddled with her. I've begun to start to think of her almost as if she were my baby sister, or even my own kid. I hate to say it but I love her. I don't know how I'll be able to handle it when she leaves.

We had since cleaned out Darien's spare bedroom in his apartment for Rini to sleep in. Darien had started out with a roommate and eventually he and the roommate had a falling out and Darien was left all alone, well, aside from me. It seemed to work out well. Since his roommate was gone we gave Rini her own room the she could decorate as she pleased. We even got her a bed and a desk to play on. She was so happy to not be on the couch after that.

It was springtime finally and I was ready for summer. The leaves on the trees were finally starting to grow back and the temperature was finally starting to rise. It had been a long, cold winter but it was over, and we were able to get some warm fresh air again.

Rini's school was out for the day but Darien had to work, so I took Rini back to my dorm with me for the day. She was excited to get some alone time with Amy I think. Amy was really good at helping her get ready for first grade by teaching her how to spell and read and things like that, I wasn't a very good teacher so I was glad she had Amy to help her.

"Come on Serena!" Rini whined, pulling me towards the dorms.

"Woah hang on," I said trying to organize myself, "okay now I'm ready."

"Can you give me a piggyback ride?"

"You're fine to walk Little Lady," I sighed.

"Please?" She dragged out.

"Alright, alright. You're so spoiled," I laughed and crouched down so she could climb onto my back. She wrapped her arms and legs around me and I wrapped my arms around her legs.

"Faster faster!" She yelled.

I jogged down to the dorm where I rounded the corner and almost ran into someone.

"Oops sorry!" Rini and i synchronized.

"Oh it's you," Anna frowned.

I scowled back, "excuse me."

"Yes excuse you," she replied, looking around, "aren't you that girl that's always hanging around Darien?"

"Anna, we've met at least a dozen times, but yes, Darien's my boyfriend. This is Rini," I said pointing up.

She looked up at Rini and twister her mouth to the side, "so where's Darien?"

"He doesn't actually go to school here anymore, he's just always with me."

"Uhhuh."

Her brother walked around the corner then and I rolled my eyes.

"Oh hey Serena!" He waved, "and you're Rini, right?"

Rini nodded but shied away.

"Rini, Serena, I was just about to make some tea, would you like some?"

"They were just leaving," Anna growled.

"Oh really?"

I was about to nod, but then I realized it could be a good opportunity to see if our suspensions about them were correct.

"Ah no, Rini and I have nothing going on, we'd love some tea."

"Right this way then," Al gestured.

I tightened my grip on Rini and followed Al. Rini clung tighter to me and I could tell she was nervous, but Sailor Mini Moon was no coward. She was prepared for the worst. When we got into the dorm I released Rini from my back and she took my hand instead. I looked down at her and mouthed that it would be okay and she nodded in reply.

"So, how has everything been going?" I asked once we were all settled in.

"Its's been going great! Thank you for asking," Al smiled, "and how about you? I see you're still with the little one."

"Her name is Rini," I reminded, "and yeah, things are fine."

"Rini, huh, that's a cute name, reminds me of the word mini. Mini Rini," he laughed.

I gulped and tried to keep it cool. Either they knew our secret and just weren't admitting it directly, or they were really just that stupid, or they weren't who we thought they were.

"Um, yeah, but she doesn't like being called that."

"Oh of course, I'm sorry."

"It's fine," Rini frowned. She reached up to me and I picked her up. She wrapped her arms around me and whispered in my ear that she was going to create a distraction and then I was going to go check out the creepy room. I nodded gently and put her back down.

"She's a cuddly one, isn't she?" Al asked.

"Sometimes," I replied.

"Um, excuse me, al, can I talk to you in the kitchen for a minute please?" Anna asked with a fake grin.

"Of course, sister dear." The two of them walked off into the kitchen and I gestured for Rini to follow. She went into the kitchen and I could hear her talking their ears off. I took the opportunity and jumped into action. Approaching the door, I took a deep sigh and turned the knob. When I opened the door I was shocked to find nothing but dark, blank space. There was no bedroom, there were no walls, just darkness. I heard a noise coming from in front of me a ways but I couldn't see it and I couldn't investigate because I was suddenly jerked back into the living room.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Anna asked.

I was at a loss for words.

"Serena are you okay?" Rini asked, kneeling next to me on the floor.

"Why did you do that?" I asked Anna, getting up and brushing myself off.

"I told you last time you were here not to go in there!"

"Girls, girls, calm down. Serena, I'm sorry, but I think you should leave," Al stammered.

"What's in there?" I asked.

"Its none of your business now get out!"

I sighed and took Rini's hand, leading her out. They slammed the door behind us and I walked down the hall to my own dorm. Amy was in the living room with her books like usual, and when I walked up she looked up, surprised.

"Oh hey Serena, did I just hear shouting out there?"

"Uh, you heard shouting from a few dorms down. We were in Al and Anna's dorm."

"What happened?" she asked, putting her book down and patting the seat next to her. I took the spot and told my fellow Scout everything that happened.

Chapter 12

After my talk with Amy, we called the rest of the group for an emergency meeting. When they arrived I retold the story and we all thought the same thing. That something was fishy.

"I say we barge into their dorm and take them down," Rei said, grinding her fist into her palm.

"We need a plan," I told her.

"That is a plan," Leita encouraged.

I shook my head, "technically I don't think I have enough evidence. So I saw a dark room that creeped me out, that doesn't mean that they're Ail and An."

"But it wasn't that you saw a dark room, you saw an empty void! You said you couldn't see a ceiling, or a floor or walls! That kind of room can't fit into a dorm." Mina continued.

"I know," I said, "I feel the same way, but I don't know if that's the right move for us."

"Yeah, Serena's right," Luna agreed, "we need to formulate a plan, but quickly, because I get a bad vibe from those two and I've just about had it."

"Okay so anyone have some ideas?" Artemis asked.

"I liked Rei's idea," Leita said, raising her hand.

"No a serious plan."

"Okay how about this," I suggested, "we all go over to their dorm with apology cookies, Darien, you come too so that Anna is soothed. With all of us there there's no way they can keep track of all of us, so one of us open the door again and find out what's in that room. If its something or someone from the Negaverse, we attack, if not, we say sorry and leave them with the cookies."

"Why would I soothe Anna?" Darien asked, crossing his arms.

"Oh please," I rolled my eyes," everyone knows she has a huge crush on you.

"I'm sorry but I'm spoken for."

"Tell that to her."

"I like it," Amy said, "but what is our excuse for all of us being there to apologize for what one person did?"

We all paused to think.

"The more the merrier?" Mina asked, shrugging.

We shrugged in reply, it was at least something easy that they probably wouldn't question.

"Okay, let's do it," I nodded.

We all put our hands together and agreed upon the plan.

"Whelp I better get to cooking!" Leita yelled, rolling her sleeves up. We laughed and followed her to the kitchen.

Somehow Leita was able to make everything from scratch even though we didn't have many ingredients, but somehow she made the best cookies I'd ever tasted.

"Its going to be hard to save any of these for Al and Anna," Mina said through chews.

"Shut your pie hole, I can make you more later," Leita said, taking the tray away from us. We groaned but knew she was right.

"Okay guys, I think its time, are we ready?"

"I'm ready!" Rini cheered.

"You're so brave Rini," I told her.

"I just want to help, Mo-Serena."

"This could be it though, if they really are Ail and An. This is going to be the big boss fight, you know that, right?"

"Yeah, I know, I'm ready though. I've been trained by the best, remember?"

We laughed and I gave her a big hug, "I…love you…Rini."

"I love you too…Serena."

"Come on now, let's go."

She took my hand, leading the way. A few dorms down we knocked, hoping Al and Anna would answer. Al did but he wasn't his usual cheerful self.

"Oh, hello," he sighed.

"Hey there Al, I just wanted to come over and apologize for intruding on your privacy. I broke your trust and I'm very sorry for that, I was hoping you and Anna would accept these cookies as a token of my sincere apology."

Anna came to the door upon hearing her name and frowned. Al had cheered up and forgiven us, but it took a bit more convincing. We all gathered into their dorm and huddled around them with fake smiles and laughter. They totally bought it and once they were distracted enough, Rei suggested everyone go out for drinks.

"Oh I don't know if that's a great idea, I'd rather stay in," Anna stated.

"Okay well that's cool, we can just party here!"

Everyone fake cheered, even Darien, and as a group they dragged them to the kitchen to make drinks. I took the second opportunity to test our theory and jumped into the forbidden room, making sure to close the door behind me this time.

"Whoa it sure is dark in here," Rini said, grabbing my skirt.

"Rini, you coming in here was not part of the plan!"

"I want to help!"

"You'd be helping more by being out there!"

"Is now really time to argue?"

I huffed, "no, just…stay close."

She nodded and held my hand. I took a few steps forward, scared that I would fall into the abyss. Even though I couldn't see it, there must have been a floor, because I kept setting my foot down on something. A few steps into the room and we heard a grumble. It was low and slow and terrifying, but we continued. A few more steps and I could see the outlining of something ahead of me. I turned my head back and the door that we had entered was gone, there was nothing but darkness all around us, so we continued to follow the silhouette.

"Are you okay Rini?" I asked, assuming she was probably scared.

"I'm fine," she stated.

"There is no way its not them. We're not even in the dorm anymore, this is some kind of other world or something."

"Yeah, its like we opened the door to another planet."

A roar emerged from the figure as we approached it, and suddenly a light was shed. The figure before us turned out to be a very large tree, one that looked like an oak mixed with a willow. The trunk of the tree was huge, maybe 10 feet across, and it was at least three stories tall.

I gulped, "um yeah, there's no way that would fit into a dorm room."

Rini took a step back but braced herself. Suddenly the door reappeared and Anna came into the room.

"Exactly what do you think you're doing?" she frowned.

"Umm, what a nice tree you have?" I asked.

She got right up in front of me and glared at me and Rini.

"fine, if you two can't follow the rules, then I guess I'm just going to have to kill you." she looked up at the tree and told it to kill us, then pushed us as far as she could into it. Suddenly the tree came to life and the roots wrapped around us, just like with the cardians, I could feel the energy being drained from my body. Rini and I screamed as the tree gripped tighter around us.

"Serena!" Darien yelled from a distance. He and everyone else piled into the room, including Al.

"Anna no!" he screamed and ran over to me, telling the tree to let me go. I struggled to keep conscious as I felt so exhausted. Somehow I kept it together even though all I wanted to do was to sleep and get my energy back.

"Let her go!" Al screamed.

The tree took a root and smacked him back.

"How dare you!" he grumbled. He clenched his fists as his hair changed from short brown to long blue, and his clothes from jeans and a tee to a jump-suit looking thing. Anna also changed into An and laughed.

"Soon all your energy will be gone, and you will die of exhaustion."

"Why are you doing this?" my friends asked.

She rolled her eyes, "because I need energy to survive, and I don't like her. In fact, I don't like any of you! Tree, just finish them all off! I can't let them leave now that they know our secret anyways!"

Multiple roots swung at them at once, everyone was able to doge the roots except for Darien. I don't know why, he was usually pretty good at that kind of thing, but this time he was knocked back, hitting his head on whatever ground was beneath us.

"No!" I screamed, struggling to free myself from the tree's grasp.

"Darien!" the girls checked on him but he was out cold, and I could feel myself fading away too. The tree let go of Rini and I just as I passed out, and I woke up a few minutes later to an unconscious child and a group of Sailor Scouts surrounding us.

"What…what happened?"

"Serena, its bad, if you can, you need to transform, now!" Luna told me. I hugged Rini and laid her down gently.

I nodded to Luna and stood up.

"How could you?" I asked Ail and An.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," An shrugged.

"You're a horrible person!"

"Keep talking, Sailor Moon."

"How did you-"

"Well I see your friends here are all Sailor Scouts, the only one missing is Sailor Moon, not that hard to put together."

I pulled out my compact and transformed as quickly as I could.

"I've had enough of you," I growled.

"An, let's get this over with, Tree, take all of their energy except Sailor Moon's now!"

The tree made a grumbling noise and picked Darien up, he was still unconscious, and his body started to glow as his energy was being taken.

"leave him alone!" An screamed, "I said to take the girl's energy, not his!"

Ail and An bickered over Darien and I as the tree continued to try and steal everyone's energy. I ran over to Darien and pulled at the roots, trying to get the tree to release him.

I eventually got the idea to use my tiara on the tree and cut the root off with it. Darien fell to the ground and I caught him just in time.

"Darien, Darien, please talk to me, are you okay?" I pleaded. He groaned and slowly opened his eyes.

"Oh Darien!"

His eyes got very wide and he took a step back from me, "who are you?"

"Darien, now is not the time for jokes, we're in the middle of a fight?"

He looked around and became very nervous-looking, "what's going on?"

"Darien, do you really not know where you are right now?" Sailor Mercury asked.

He shook his head, "who are you all? Where am I?"

Sailor Mercury pulled out her handy-dandy computer and scanned his head.

"Oh this is not good," she claimed.

"What's wrong with him?" Sailor Venus asked.

"He has total amnesia!"

"But…"I stammered. He looked around at us and stopped at me.

"Darien, please tell me that's not true, please tell me you haven't forgotten who I am?"

He looked into my eyes, and I pleaded with them, nearing tears.

"I'm sorry…I don't know who you are." He winced and raised a hand to the bump on the back of his head.

Ail and An were still arguing in the background when Rini came to, she looked at all of us and wrapped her arms around Darien's legs, worried. He removed her from his legs and took another step back, "who are you?"

She immediately started tearing up.

"Honey, he doesn't remember any of us," I told her.

"How can you not remember sweet little Rini," Sailor Jupiter asked.

"Yeah, she's only been living with you for half a year now," Mars stammered.

He looked around at all of us, looking like he was trying to find the exit. Unfortunately, none of us knew where that was.

An grabbed me from behind and yanked me back. I yelped and spun around, slapping her. She griped and shoved me.

"Oh no, we are not about to get into one of those fights," I told her, "let's just get this over with, so I can get Darien to a hospital."

"No need when you're all dead," she threatened.

"You still don't understand do you?"

"Understand what?"

"We don't give up. We will fight you until we win, and we will."

"I'm sick of all you humans thinking you're so great."

"Yes, I too have grown weary of this planet, why don't we just get rid of everyone and start anew?" Ail suggested.

An gave a smug grin and commanded the tree to attack. The roots swung out again and encompassed all of us. We screamed as it collectively took our energy.

"That's it," An laughed.

The tree let go and we all fell to the ground in a pile. Then the tree focused on Darien, and raised him up into the air.

"Darien no!" An yelled. The tree grabbed me then and held me up too.

"Serena! Let her go you stupid tree!" Ail screamed. He phased over to me and pulled at the tree's roots. An did the same for Darien. They looked up at the tree and asked why it was disobeying them. A pulse ran through the tree and we were zapped. We both screamed for each other in pain.

I looked deep into Darien's eyes as he faded in and out of consciousness, "Darien please, please don't leave me. You can't…give up."

"He opened his eyes and reached for me, I reached back but we were just too far away.

"I…I'm sorry," he grunted, "I truly don't remember who you are…but I know I could never leave you. Something in me tells me so."

"Darien, I love you."

He reached for me again but Ail kicked his hand away. An stomped her foot, mid-air, and pushed Ail.

"Don't you touch him," she griped.

"Don't touch Serena!" he replied.

"Why not? She clearly doesn't want to be with you! I don't know why you would ever pick her over me!"

Finally I realized what was going on. It was a jealousy war.

"I don't, I love you!" Ail told her, "but you can't even see that since you're too busy fawning over Darien all the time!"

"I do not fawn!"

"Look An, he can't even remember who he is yet he still picks her over you! So get over it!"

She gasped and then looked over at Darien, who was still struggling against the tree.

"Maybe you're right. We have to remember that's it's always been just the two of us, and its always going to be just the two of us. If we can't have them, then no one can." An commanded the tree to kill us once again, but instead we were let go. We fell to the ground with a thud, and I rose to my feet, ready to take them on.

"Fine, if you won't do it, then I will!" An raised her hand and knocked us back with an invisible force strong enough to knock over someone three times my size. I stood my ground in front of Darien, who was weak and exhausted.

"Go ahead and try to defend him, it won't do you any good."

We were blasted back again, going so far we were pinned up against one of the tree's roots. We were cornered.

I stood up again and got in front of Darien, "kill me if you must, but please, don't hurt Darien."

"How sweet," she replied sarcastically.

Ail rolled his eyes and they blasted me back together. Darien caught me in his arms with what little strength he had. We were knocked to the ground, torn apart once again. We crawled towards each other and reached out.

"Serena," he breathed.

"Darien, its me, remember? Serena, Princess Serena, your soul mate, please, please remember."

Darien looked at me, and struggled to stand. He held his position in front of me and I watched as he protected me against another blast.

"You just won't die!" Al screamed.

"Look at you pathetic fools," An giggled.

"Darien, please don't do this, you don't have the strength." Just as I said that he was hit again. I caught him and held him in my arms. I began to cry as I watched the light go out of his eyes. We were hit once more and both of us went flying, our bodies were separated, but we never let go of each-other's hands.

An growled, nearing giving up. I knew we just had to hang in there a little longer. The scouts jumped in, throwing their attacks and it quickly turned into an all-out war. Suddenly a light emerged from the tree and a voice was heard from within it.

"Enough!" the tree screamed.

We all gasped and those of us standing took a step back.

"I cannot watch you two do this any longer!"

"What are you talking about?" Ail and An asked.

"You can't keep stealing people's energy like this!"

"But I thought that's what we needed! I thought that's what you needed!"

The tree began to explain their back ground to us, starting from the very beginning, and finishing with the explanation that it wasn't energy that she needed, but love. Ail and An seemed flabbergasted, and looked around.

"You mean all this time, we kept thinking you were dying because you weren't getting enough energy, you were really dying because we weren't giving you enough love?"

"Yes," the tree replied.

They looked at each other; finally a hint of a positive emotion crossed their faces.

"I can't believe we've been so blind. All we've needed to do was to work together, instead of doing these things that were driving us apart."

"Yeah, Darien and Serena, we want a love like yours, we were jealous is all, I'm so sorry that we've done this."

I looked over at Darien and he seemed very confused, but he was still holding my hand, and he wasn't letting go. Rini came over to us, the girls protesting, and sat down.

"I love you Darien, Serena," she told us. I hugged her and stood up with her in my arms. Darien stood up behind me, struggling to keep his balance.

"What does this mean now?" I asked Ail and An.

They looked to the tree, "what do we do to heal you?"

"Serena, I know what you can do, can you please help me?"

I nodded in understanding. I looked over at Darien, and without a though he took Rini from me gently.

I got my wand out and used it to heal the broken heart of the tree. The room was filled with light and we were all transported to a world that was all a light blue and soft green. Here the tree appeared before us as a sapling, and Ail and An held it in wonder.

"Serena…" Darien stammered.

"Yes?" I asked, looking back. The light in his eyes had returned and I knew that could only mean one thing.

"I love you," he said.

I laughed and jumped into his arms. He smiled and wrapped his arms around me.

"I'm so glad you're back. I know you weren't gone long but still."

"Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere."

The girls cheered behind us and Rini jumped in between us, "what about me?"

Darien smiled and ruffled her hair, "I love you too," he told her.

She clapped and she pulled her into a tight hug.

"This is it," An said. We took a step back and turned to them. The pink and blue haired people were holding the glowing sapling together, "we can start a new life now."

"Yes and this time we'll do it right, with love and happiness," Ail agreed.

"I think they're going to be okay," I smiled up at Darien and he kissed my forehead, "we all are."

I hugged him tightly; glad to be done with our used-to-be enemies.

Chapter 13

It was Darien and I's first anniversary together and we couldn't have been more in love. I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him. I knew that with Tuxedo Mask by my side I would never be lonely, or scared, or even ever have to open a door again. We had a whole life behind us, and a whole life ahead of us as well, and I planned on making the best of every moment of it. With Rini with us, it almost felt like we were one happy little family, and I couldn't bear the thought of losing either one of them.

For our anniversary, the girls decided to take Rini out and keep her for the night so that Darien and I could have some alone time. I was grateful for that but I would also miss her too. However, it had been a long time since Darien and I had had any alone time together, and we were ready to get our date-night on. I got all fancied up in a tight black pencil-skirt dress with heels and jewelry and makeup, and I even left my hair down and curled it. Even in big curls my hair still went all the way down to my butt so I put it in a high-sleek ponytail and wrapped a layer around the hairband so I wouldn't end up sitting on it.

Darien wore a tuxedo but instead of the tuxedo mask uniform, he lost the cape and mask and swapped it out for a pocket watch and bow charm. He looked so handsome I almost swooned.

"Ready?" he asked, pulling a rose from his pocket.

I took the rose and smelled its sweet scent, "ready.

I slipped my hand into his cupped arm and walked out with Dairen to his car.

Things had finally gotten back to normal after Ail and An left. Obviously, Al and Anna were gone too, and no one was getting attacked anymore. Police were finally getting a break and so were the Sailor Scouts. We still trained every day at the gym though, because you never know. Rini was getting stronger as a Scout every day and smarter as a kid every day. She was nearing the end of kindergarten and was very excited to start first grade next school year. I on the other hand was just waiting to graduate. The next semester would be my first as a junior. Only one more year after that and then I'd be done.

Darien took me out to a nice restaurant, one that I couldn't believe he could afford, and I was glad I had dressed up so much; otherwise I really would've stood out. As we ate, I could feel that there was some tension rising, and I couldn't figure out what it was, so I decided to be upfront and just ask.

"Darien, are you okay?"

"Huh? Yeah why wouldn't I be?"

"You just seem…tense, I don't know."

"I guess maybe I'm just a bit nervous."

"About what? This is supposed to be a relaxing, fun night, there's no room for anxiety."

"I'm just…worried about Rini is all."

"It's okay; she's in really good hands."

He smiled, "yeah, I know."

We finished our meal and decided to take a walk in the near-by park.

"I am so full," I laughed.

"Yeah, me too, that place was really good."

"For sure, we'll have to go back sometime."

"Yeah, maybe we could make it a tradition to go on all our anniversaries."

"All of them?"

"Every single one of them."

"How many do you think we'll have?"

Darien turned to me and took my hands in his, "I hope that well have so many that we will be too old to take a walk in the park like this one day."

"Yeah?"

"Serena, you know I love you right?"

"As I love you."

"I've loved you as prince Darien before, but I love you as just me now, and just plain ol' regular Darien wants to spend the rest of my life with you, I don't want anything to come between us again like it did the first time."

"I feel the same way."

"Serena, will you marry me?"

I should've gasped from shock but I was so hoping he would do that exact thing that I nearly expected it, but I was so excited he actually did that I jumped up and down like a school-girl.

"Yes!" I squealed and jumped into his embrace.

He laughed, struggling to breathe because of my tight hug, "I haven't even gotten the chance to get the ring out yet!"

I stepped back, "I don't care what it looks like, I love you! Of course I'll marry you!"

Darien laughed again and pulled a ring case out of his pocket, "here."

I opened it and was shocked by how beautiful it was. Previously, I had never actually thought about what kind of ring I would like, I was never very big on jewelry, yet somehow Darien figured out exactly which ring I would love.

"Oh Darien, I love it!"

"Promise?"

"Duh!" I squealed again, something that was very new to me, and had Darien put the ring on my finger. I held my hand up to admire it for a moment then wrapped my arms around my man to kiss him.

"Shall we celebrate?"

"You mean like telling the girls?"

"No, I mean like the girls have Rini tonight, how about some wine at my place?"

"That sounds lovely."

We walked back to the car and on the way to Darien's place I admired my ring again, holding my rose close to my heart as I did.

"This so far has been a great first anniversary," I smiled.

"It has," he agreed.

When we got to his place, somewhere that was definitely beginning to feel like _our_ place, I kicked my shoes off and plopped down on the couch. Darien grabbed a bottle of wine and two glasses and began to pour our drinks.

Two and a half glasses later and we were just a tad tipsy.

"You know what we should do?" I giggled.

"What?" he smiled.

"We should take a bubble bath."

"Think the tub is big enough for that?"

I shrugged, "we might have to squeeze together but I think we can make it work."

"Okay sure, why not. Why don't you stay right here and I'll go get it ready?"

I nodded and watched the most gorgeous man walk away from me. A few minutes after the water had turned on, Darien came back into the room, "it's almost ready, why don't you bring the rest of the wine with you?"

I grabbed the glasses and followed him into the bathroom. I stumbled a bit and almost lost the glasses, but Darien and his quick reflexes caught them.

"Nice move Tuxedo Mask!"

He gasped dramatically, "who told you!"

"Oh oops, was I not supposed to know about your double life as a crime-fighting vigilante in a sexy tuxedo?"

"Sexy you say?"

I nodded, "I must say, you look pretty damn good in that thing."

"Well I think you look pretty good with nothing on."

"You're such a liar."

"Am not, ill prove it right now," Darien laughed and spun me around, unzipping my dress and letting me slip out of it. Underneath I was wearing nothing but a thin thong, and I spun back around to help Darien out of his clothes.

"See, I told you you looked good."

I rolled my eyes and unbuttoned his shirt, then his pants. He peeled them off and together we got into the tub. It was a tight fit, but a cozy one. Our sloppy kissing was moved to the bedroom once the bathroom got too hot to stay in any longer, and we opened up a window to let the cool late-spring air in.

Before we were even totally dried off I was pushed down onto the bed, Darien crawling on top of me and pulling my arms up with his. He trailed kisses down my torso, sending shivers up my spine. His kisses stretched back up to my neck as he bit down and sucked. I gasped at the immediate pressure, but then relaxed and it started to feel good.

The kissing and sucking and many other things continued for what felt both like forever, and hardly any time at all, and I'll admit we weren't as careful as we usually were, but we were just so happy and content and not to mention a little drunk, that we were a little careless. But making quick, last second decisions saved us and we both exhaled a sigh of relief, collapsing onto the bed next to each other.

"That was nice," he sighed.

I laughed, "we should've waited to do that bubble bath till after."

He shrugged, "yeah maybe."

We hopped into the shower just long enough to rinse off, then got back into bed and put a movie on. We fell asleep together within minutes and the next morning I was lucky enough to not be hung over.

"How are you feeling?" I asked Darien.

"Surprisingly good," he admitted.

"Shall we go get Rini back? I'm sure the girls are sick of her by now."

He laughed, "yeah they probably are."

We arrived at Amy and I's dorm last night to find Amy, Leita, Rei, and Mina all huddled together on the floor in sleeping bags, with Artemis and Dianna cuddled together on the couch. We tip-toed around to find Rini in my bed, hugging Luna tightly to her chest. Luna was wide awake, looking for a way to slip out of Rini's grasp.

I sat on the bed and gently woke Rini up by holding her hand and brushing her hair back. She jumped up, scared, and then realized what was happening and her fear turned into happiness. She hugged me, then Darien, and jumped up and down on the bed.

"Hey, let's not do that, okay?"

"Yeah, Rini, what would you like to do today?"

She shrugged, "is it supposed to be warm today?"

I nodded, "very."

"Then let's go to the park, the one with that big fountain, I want to make a wish!"

"Okay, I think we can arrange that."

We made breakfast for everyone as a thank you for watching Rini throughout the night and they were grateful for the food. While eating I told everyone what had happened on our date (the engagement part) and the gang cheered for me. They were happy for us and couldn't wait to help with the wedding.

A few hours later we took Rini to the park, and she ran right to the fountain.

"Do you have any coins on you?" she asked.

Darien fished around in his pocket and found a dime, "here you go Little Lady."

"I like when you call me that," she smiled. She was very calm and very serene. For a second, and only for a second, I thought I saw her hand become see-through. I don't know what would have caused it; maybe I was still a little messed up from the night before.

"Rini-" I started to ask, but I stopped when I noticed how hard she was concentrating on her wish. She had one hand to her heart, and the other outstretched with the dime resting in her palm. Her eyes were closed and she mouthed something unintelligibly.

"What did you wish for?" I asked a few minutes later.

"I wished that…" she paused and looked at Dianna, who nodded her head, "I wished that you will have a very easy pregnancy."

I laughed, "what?"

Rini looked between Darien and I then placed her hand on my flat belly, "there's something I need to tell you guys."

"What, that you can see the future?"

"No…I am from the future."

It took everything in my not to burst out laughing, and I could tell by the way Darien squeezed my hand that he was struggling with the same thing.

"Honey, what do you mean?"

"When Dianna told you I came from a moon that orbits Venus, she lied. I was born on earth, but I am Sailor Moon's daughter."

We were all serious then, "how can that be?"

"In my time, my parents are known as King Darien and Queen Serena."

"You mean, you are _our_ daughter?" Darien and I looked back and forth between each other and Rini, both of us blushing a deep red.

"Hi, it's nice to meet you," she curtseyed.

"But how it is time travel possible?"

"I used this key to travel here. I had to go through the gates of time which is guarded by another Scout."

"Who?"

"Her name is Sailor Pluto."

"So there are other Scouts out there that we don't know about?"

"Many that you have yet to meet, but you will."

Darien was speechless.

"Okay Rini, why did you come here then?"

"As King and Queen, my parents are no longer part of the Scout group, they don't have time to train me on battle skills…or anything really…but they sent me here to be trained by the Sailor Scouts so I could go back and be more prepared."

"Why, is there an enemy in your time?"

"Not currently, but you never know."

"You sound so grown up, Little Lady."

"I'm older than I look."

"What do you mean?"

"It's a long story, you'll find out one day. I can't tell you too much about your future you know."

"Oh…right," I sighed.

"I can't believe this," Darien spoke, "I have a daughter!"

His eyes lit up and he hugged me, then Rini, "you are MY daughter?"

Rini nodded and hugged him back.

"But there's a catch."

We sighed, "what do you mean?"

"Well you see, the thing is is…two Rini's cannot co-exist."

"I don't understand."

"My Mom told me I would know when my time here was up. I finally figured out what she meant by that. You see, just before falling asleep last night, I was brushing my teeth and suddenly my whole body faded away! It was only for a second, but ever since then, every once in a while a part of me with start to fade away. It's beginning to happen more and more as time goes on and…I'm afraid I don't have much time left before I disappear completely."

"And you won't be able to come back?"

She shook her head.

"But why?"

"Remember what I wished for? The Future Rini and The Past Rini can't be together in the same time, not for long anyways."

A realization struck both Darien and I then, "so what you're saying is that I'm pregnant?"

"You must be."

I looked at Darien, and then back to Rini, "I am pregnant, with you?"

"Well don't make it sound like a bad thing."

"No! No, Rini, this is so exciting! But, I don't want you to fade away!"

"That's why I have to leave, as soon as possible, before its too late. I have to go back to my own time where my parents are waiting for me."

We nodded, "we understand."

I got down to Rini's level and hugged her tightly, "I will miss you so much."

"We should probably tell the girls."

I nodded, "you're right."

We called everyone down and repeated the story. Again I was cheered on by my fellow Scouts who were excited about my pregnancy. However, they too were sad that it meant Rini had to leave.

"Luna, did you know about this time travel thing?" I randomly asked.

She shrugged, "I had hear rumors but never knew it was actually true. Sailor Pluto huh?"

Rini nodded, "well guys, I should get going."

A tear formed in my eye as I stood back and watched Ri-my daughter- say goodbye to my best friends. When she had said her goodbyes to them she looked over at me, holding back tears. I couldn't stop my own from flowing then and I ran over to her and dropped to my knees. Rini ran and jumped into my arms and cried too.

"I love you," I told her.

"I love you too, Mommy, Daddy," she cried, looking up at Darien, who came over and joined the hug.

Rini sniffled and stood back, taking a key-shaped necklace out of her shirt.

"Bye everyone!" she shouted, and then used her key to open a portal to what I assumed was the gate of time.

I was so sad to see her go, and when I cried into Darien's shoulder her rubbed my back gently.

"You know…" he began, "you really won't be missing her long."

I looked up at him, about to ask what he meant, and then I remembered. I looked down at my stomach. There was nothing there…at least…not that we could see. I rested my hand on my flat stomach and looked up at Darien, "you're right, only nine months and then she'll be right back in our arms."


End file.
